The Rocks District of Milton-Freewater AVA



The Rocks District of Milton-Freewater (known locally as "The Rocks District") is an American Viticultural Area (AVA) in Umatilla County, Oregon that is a sub-appellation of the Walla Walla Valley AVA, and both lie within the vast Columbia Valley AVA. The appellation was established on March 11, 2015 by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB), Treasury after reviewing the petition submitted from Dr. Kevin R. Pogue, a professor of geology at Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, proposing the viticultural area called "The Rocks District of Milton-Freewater."

The appellation lies entirely within the Oregon portion of the Walla Walla Valley AVA that partially expands across Walla Walla County. It is named for the city of Milton-Freewater, Oregon and a unique alluvial fan resulting in rocky soils with "baseball sized" basalt cobbles covering the earth, and is notable as being "the only AVA in the United States whose boundaries are defined by the soil type." Unique wine flavors are said to result from the mineral composition, hydrology, and temperatures of the volcanic rocks.

History
Washington State geologist and terroir consultant Kevin Pogue submitted the petition to TTB proposing an area named "The Rocks District of Milton-Freewater." The AVA petition was published for comment in the Federal Register in February 2014, and was established in February 2015.

Controversies
The AVA, unlike the Walla Walla Valley AVA, and the Walla Walla Valley itself, lies entirely within the state of Oregon. This has implications for use of the appellation on wines produced in Oregon and Washington. Because Federal rules require wines to be fully finished in the state in which the AVA lies, only a handful of Oregon wineries, out of the more than 100 wineries in both states in the Walla Walla Valley, would be permitted to use the appellation on their product. At the same time, Oregon wineries as far away as Portland could use the appellation. This has caused some, labeled "prominent dissenters" by Wine Spectator's Harvey Steiman, to oppose the AVA. Other reactions were less pointed with wine publishers using terms like "a bit of controversy" and "the location...creates some nuances". One of the same publishers said a "sub-appellation was ... inevitable given the uniqueness of the soils and resulting wines".

Critical reception
Wine Spectator's two top-rated Northwest wines, both Syrah scored 98 out of 100, were sourced in the AVA.