[Federal Register Volume 73, Number 48 (Tuesday, March 11, 2008)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 12878-12881]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E8-4785]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY

Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau

27 CFR Part 9

[T.D. TTB-67; Re: Notice No. 70]
RIN 1513-AB21


Expansion of the San Francisco Bay Viticultural Area (2005R-413P)

AGENCY: Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, Treasury.

ACTION: Final rule; Treasury decision.

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SUMMARY: This Treasury decision expands the San Francisco Bay 
viticultural area in northern California. The expansion adds 88 square 
miles to the viticultural area to its north in Solano County, 
California. We designate viticultural areas to allow vintners to better 
describe the origin of their wines and to allow consumers to better 
identify wines they may purchase.

DATES: Effective Date: April 10, 2008.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: N.A. Sutton, Regulations and Rulings 
Division, Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, 925 Lakeville St., 
No. 158, Petaluma, California 94952; telephone 415-271-1254.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background on Viticultural Areas

TTB Authority

    Section 105(e) of the Federal Alcohol Administration Act (FAA Act), 
27 U.S.C. 205(e), authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to prescribe 
regulations for the labeling of wine, distilled spirits, and malt 
beverages. The FAA Act provides that these regulations should, among 
other things, prohibit consumer deception and the use of misleading 
statements on labels, and ensure that labels provide the consumer with 
adequate information as to the identity and quality of the product. The 
Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) administers the 
regulations promulgated under the FAA Act.
    Part 4 of the TTB regulations (27 CFR part 4) allows the 
establishment of definitive viticultural areas and the use of their 
names as appellations of origin on wine labels and in wine 
advertisements. Part 9 of the TTB regulations (27 CFR part 9) contains 
the list of approved viticultural areas.

Definition

    Section 4.25(e)(1)(i) of the TTB regulations (27 CFR 4.25(e)(1)(i)) 
defines a viticultural area for American wine as a delimited grape-
growing region distinguishable by geographical features, the boundaries 
of which have been recognized and defined in part 9 of the regulations. 
These designations allow vintners and consumers to attribute a given 
quality, reputation, or other characteristic of a wine made from grapes 
grown in an area to its geographical origin. The establishment of 
viticultural areas allows vintners to describe more accurately the 
origin of their wines to consumers and helps consumers to identify 
wines they may purchase. Establishment of a viticultural area is 
neither an approval nor an endorsement by TTB of the wine produced in 
that area.

Requirements

    Section 4.25(e)(2) of the TTB regulations outlines the procedure 
for proposing an American viticultural area and provides that any 
interested party may petition TTB to establish a grape-growing region 
as a viticultural area. Petitioners may use the same procedure to 
request changes involving existing viticultural areas. Section 9.3(b) 
of the TTB regulations requires the petition to include--
     Evidence that the proposed viticultural area is locally 
and/or nationally known by the name specified in the petition;
     Historical or current evidence that supports setting the 
boundary of the proposed viticultural area as the petition specifies;
     Evidence relating to the geographical features, such as 
climate, soils, elevation, and physical features, that distinguish the 
proposed viticultural area from surrounding areas;
     A description of the specific boundary of the proposed 
viticultural area, based on features found on United States Geological 
Survey (USGS) maps; and
     A copy of the appropriate USGS map(s) with the proposed 
viticultural area's boundary prominently marked.

San Francisco Bay and Central Coast Expansion Petition

    Hestan Vineyards, LLC, of Vallejo, California, represented by 
Holland and Knight LLP of San Francisco, California, submitted a 
petition for an 88-square-mile boundary expansion that includes 
portions of Solano County to the north of the Carquinez Strait, and 
would apply to both the established San Francisco Bay viticultural area 
(27 CFR 9.157) and the established Central Coast viticultural area (27 
CFR 9.75). After reviewing the petition, TTB determined that the 
evidence submitted in support of the proposed expansion of the San 
Francisco Bay viticultural area merited rulemaking action. TTB also 
determined that there was insufficient documentation to proceed with 
rulemaking for the proposed expansion of the Central Coast viticultural 
area. Accordingly, TTB notified the petitioner of these determinations, 
and the petitioner agreed to proceed only with the portion of the 
petition for the expansion of the San Francisco Bay viticultural area.

San Francisco Bay Expansion Petition Evidence

    The petitioner submitted the following information in support of 
the expansion of the San Francisco Bay viticultural area.
    The petition states that the San Francisco Bay area is a loosely 
bound region that includes other bodies of water, including San Pablo 
Bay, the Carquinez Strait, and Suisun Bay. USGS maps of the region show 
that San Francisco Bay joins San Pablo Bay to its north. Also, the 
Carquinez Strait

[[Page 12879]]

connects San Pablo Bay on the west with Suisun Bay on the east.
    The petition states that the area covered by the proposed 
expansion, which is located adjacent to the north shores of San Pablo 
Bay and the Carquinez Strait, is an area historically, economically, 
and socially considered to be a part of the San Francisco Bay region. 
With the exception of the 4,480 acres, or 7 square miles, of the 
Carquinez Strait waterway, the petition explains, the entire proposed 
expansion area is on land in western Solano County.

Name Evidence

    As documented in the petition, a number of Government agencies and 
interest groups provide services to the nine counties in the recognized 
San Francisco Bay area, including the proposed expansion area in Solano 
County. The Bay Area Council's Web site as of April 12, 2005, lists its 
nine counties, which include Solano, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa 
Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa, Napa, Sonoma, and Marin. Other government 
agencies and interest groups using the same nine-county San Francisco 
Bay area parameter include the Association of Bay Area Governments, Bay 
Area Water Transit Authority, Bay Area Marketing Partnership, and Bay 
Area Economic Forum.
    The petition documents that the City of Vallejo, in southwest 
Solano County and within the proposed San Francisco Bay expansion area, 
serves as a key ferry transportation hub into the City of San 
Francisco. The Vallejo ferry system, as explained on the Bay Area Water 
Transit Authority Web site, carries thousands of passengers each week 
from Solano County to the City of San Francisco and back.
    In 1987, the State of California legislature passed a bill 
establishing the ``San Francisco Bay Trail,'' as noted on page 160 of 
San Francisco Bay: Portrait of an Estuary, by John Hart, and published 
by the University of California Press in 2003. Mr. Hart states that 
this trail system includes the Vallejo area of Solano County, which the 
petition notes is a part of the proposed San Francisco Bay viticultural 
expansion area.

Boundary Evidence

    The proposed San Francisco Bay viticultural area expansion area 
comprises an 88-square-mile area that lies northeast of the City of San 
Francisco and San Francisco Bay, the petition explains. The proposed 
boundary line of the expansion area includes portions of San Pablo 
Bay's shoreline, the Solano and Napa Counties boundary line, a railroad 
track, and an interstate highway.
    The proposed expansion area's northern boundary line follows the 
dividing line between Napa and Solano Counties and the Southern Pacific 
railroad track between Creston and Cordelia, as found on the USGS 
Cuttings Wharf and Cordelia maps. TTB notes that the proposed expansion 
area boundary line coincides with various portions of the established 
boundaries for the North Coast (27 CFR 9.30), Napa Valley (27 CFR 
9.23), and Solano County Green Valley (27 CFR 9.44) viticultural areas.

Distinguishing Features

    David G. Howell, Ph.D., Geologist at Stanford University in Palo 
Alto, California, Deborah Harden, Ph.D., Geologist at San Jose State 
University, San Jose, California, and Robert Bornstein, Ph.D., 
Meteorologist at San Jose State University, San Jose, California, 
combined efforts to provide petition evidence and documentation 
substantiating the proposed northerly expansion of the San Francisco 
Bay viticultural area. The petition addresses the commonality of 
distinguishing features shared by the established San Francisco Bay 
viticultural area and the proposed northern expansion area.
Geology
    The petition explains the similarity of geology between the 
northern portion of the San Francisco Bay viticultural area and the 
proposed viticultural area expansion into Solano County. According to 
the petition, the Franklin Ridge landform of Contra Costa County, 
located in the northern most portion of the established San Francisco 
Bay viticultural area, continues northward into the proposed expansion 
area in Solano County. Franklin Ridge becomes known as Sulphur Mountain 
Ridge in Solano County, with the two ridges joining beneath the 
Carquinez Strait.
    According to the petition, the north-south linkage between the 
established San Francisco Bay viticultural area and the proposed 
expansion area is based on the continuity of the underlying geology. 
The bedrock formations, earthquake faults, landforms, and soils of the 
northern San Francisco Bay viticultural area continue north into the 
proposed expansion area.
    The petition identifies the geological bedrock core of the proposed 
expansion area as Cretaceous sandstone and shale. This body of rock, 
the petition explains, extends northward from the Mount Diablo region 
in Contra Costa County into the proposed expansion in Solano County.
Soil
    The two general categories of soils in the proposed expansion area 
are those formed in salt marshes and those formed in sandstone over 
shale bedrock on uplands, as described in the Soil Survey of Solano 
County, California, issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 
1977.
    The Solano County general soil map documents that soils in salt 
marshes dominate in areas at a low elevation south of Vallejo. Also, 
the map shows that some of the soils in the predominant Joice, Reyes, 
Suisun, and Tamba soil series are mucks or peaty mucks.
    The soils on uplands in Solano County are common to other parts of 
the San Francisco Bay viticultural area, including areas of Alameda and 
Santa Clara Counties, the petition explains. The most prevalent soils 
on uplands are in the Dibble and Los Osos series, and are moderately 
deep soils formed in weathered sandstone and shale under climatic 
conditions of seasonal soil moisture. The Altamont, Gaviota, and 
Millsholm series are also on uplands, according to the petitioner; the 
Rincon series are on alluvial fans.
Climate
    The eastward and inland movement of marine air through the Golden 
Gate Gap, the petition explains, dominates the climate of the land 
areas adjacent to San Francisco Bay and San Pablo Bay and within the 
established viticultural area boundaries. The Carquinez Strait joins 
San Pablo Bay at the bay's southeast corner, according to USGS maps, 
and receives the same marine air that cools the San Francisco and San 
Pablo Bays.
    According to the petition, the Carquinez Strait funnels the marine 
air to both the north and south sides of its shoreline, according to 
the petition. (TTB notes that the current San Francisco Bay 
viticultural area's northern boundary line extends along the south 
shoreline of the Carquinez Strait, following the Contra Costa County 
northern boundary line to BM 15 on the Honker Bay USGS map.) The 
proposed expansion area extends northward to include all the Carquinez 
Strait and portions of Solano County, according to the written boundary 
description and maps provided with the petition.
    The current expansion petition provides evidence and documentation 
that the marine air flow, with its cooling effect, travels north and 
east from the

[[Page 12880]]

Golden Gate, into San Francisco Bay, San Pablo Bay, the Carquinez 
Strait, and to the proposed expansion area. Although the proposed 
expansion area was not included in the original San Francisco Bay AVA 
petition, since the filing of the original petition, additional 
observation sites have become available that provide a more detailed 
analysis of the air flow patterns in and around the Carquinez Strait. 
Figures obtained from a new observation site that show the typical 
summer afternoon flow pattern on both the north and south sides of the 
Carquinez Strait clearly show that the Carquinez Strait is not the 
northern boundary of the influence of the marine air that has entered 
through the Golden Gate Gap.
    The California Air Resources Board maps, submitted with the 
petition, show that the marine influence extends both north and south 
of the Carquinez Strait. A San Francisco Bay Air Quality Management 
District map shows air flow through the Carquinez Strait on July 31, 
2000, a typical summer day. The air flow pattern through the Carquinez 
Strait brings the marine influence to the north, east, and south of the 
waterway, according to the map. Another computerized map of the air 
flow, also documented on July 31, 2000, shows the marine air entering 
San Francisco Bay through the Golden Gate Gap, then traveling through 
San Pablo Bay, and continuing east through the Carquinez Strait, north 
into Suisun Bay, and south into Livermore Valley.
    The information submitted with the petition concludes that the 
Carquinez Strait should not be considered the northernmost boundary of 
the San Francisco Bay viticultural area. Marine air, which is a 
significant distinguishing climatic characteristic of the San Francisco 
Bay viticultural area and region, is also significant in the proposed 
expansion area, according to the petition.

Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Comments Received

    TTB published Notice No. 70 regarding the proposed expansion to the 
San Francisco Bay viticultural area in the Federal Register (71 FR 
70472) on December 5, 2006. We received one comment in response to that 
notice. That comment supported the expansion of the San Francisco Bay 
viticultural area.

TTB Finding

    After careful review of the petition and the comment received, TTB 
finds that the evidence submitted supports the expansion of the San 
Francisco Bay viticultural area as requested in the petition. 
Therefore, under the authority of the Federal Alcohol Administration 
Act and part 4 of our regulations, we amend our regulations to expand 
the San Francisco Bay viticultural area in northern California, 
effective 30 days from the publication date of this document.

Boundary Description

    See the modified narrative boundary description reflecting the 
expanded viticultural area in the regulatory text amendment published 
at the end of this document.

Maps

    The petitioner provided the required maps pertaining to the 
expansion, and we list them below in the amended regulatory text.

Impact on Current Wine Labels

    The expansion of the San Francisco Bay viticultural area does not 
affect any currently approved wine labels. The approval of this 
expansion may allow additional vintners to use ``San Francisco Bay'' as 
an appellation of origin on their wine labels. Part 4 of the TTB 
regulations prohibits any label reference on a wine that indicates or 
implies an origin other than the wine's true place of origin. For a 
wine to be labeled with a viticultural area name or with a brand name 
that includes a viticultural area name or other term identified as 
viticulturally significant in part 9 of the TTB regulations, at least 
85 percent of the wine must be derived from grapes grown within the 
area represented by that name or other term, and the wine must meet the 
other conditions listed in 27 CFR 4.25(e)(3). Different rules apply if 
a wine has a brand name containing a viticultural area name or other 
viticulturally significant term that was used as a brand name on a 
label approved before July 7, 1986. See 27 CFR 4.39(i)(2) for details.

Regulatory Flexibility Act

    We certify that this regulation will not have a significant 
economic impact on a substantial number of small entities. This 
regulation imposes no new reporting, recordkeeping, or other 
administrative requirement. Any benefit derived from the use of a 
viticultural area name is the result of a proprietor's efforts and 
consumer acceptance of wines from that area. Therefore, no regulatory 
flexibility analysis is required.

Executive Order 12866

    This rule is not a significant regulatory action as defined by 
Executive Order 12866, 58 FR 51735. Therefore, it requires no 
regulatory assessment.

Drafting Information

    N. A. Sutton of the Regulations and Rulings Division drafted this 
notice.

List of Subjects in 27 CFR Part 9

    Wine.

The Regulatory Amendment

0
For the reasons discussed in the preamble, we amend 27 CFR, chapter I, 
part 9, as follows:

PART 9--AMERICAN VITICULTURAL AREAS

0
1. The authority citation for part 9 continues to read as follows:

    Authority: 27 U.S.C. 205.

Subpart C--Approved American Viticultural Areas

0
2. Section 9.157 is amended by revising the introductory text of 
paragraph (b), removing the word ``and'' at the end of paragraph 
(b)(42), replacing the period with a semicolon at the end of paragraph 
(b)(43), adding new paragraphs (b)(44) through (b)(47), revising the 
introductory text of paragraph (c), revising paragraph (c)(24), 
redesignating paragraphs (c)(25) through (c)(38) as (c)(31) through 
(c)(44), and adding new paragraphs (c)(25) through (c)(30), to read as 
follows:


Sec.  9.157  San Francisco Bay.

* * * * *
    (b) Approved Maps. The appropriate maps for determining the 
boundary of the San Francisco Bay viticultural area are 47 1:24,000 
Scale USGS topographic maps. They are titled:
* * * * *
    (44) Cuttings Wharf, Calif.; 1949; Photorevised 1981;
    (45) Sears Point, Calif.; 1951; Photorevised 1968;
    (46) Cordelia, Calif.; 1951; Photorevised 1980; and
    (47) Fairfield South, Calif.; 1949; Photorevised 1980.
    (c) Boundary. The San Francisco Bay viticultural area is located 
mainly within five counties, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, 
Alameda, and Contra Costa, which border the San Francisco Bay. The area 
also includes portions of three other counties, Solano, Santa Cruz, and 
San Benito, which are in the general vicinity of the greater San 
Francisco Bay metropolitan area. The boundary of the San Francisco Bay 
viticultural area is as described below.
* * * * *

[[Page 12881]]

    (24) Then proceed west-southwest along the south shoreline of the 
Suisun Bay and the Carquinez Strait to its intersection with Interstate 
680 at the Benicia-Martinez Bridge and BM 66, T3N/R2W, on the Vine Hill 
Quadrangle.
    (25) Then proceed generally north following Interstate 680, 
crossing over and back on the Benicia Quadrangle map and continuing 
over the Fairfield South Quadrangle map, to its intersection with the 
Southern Pacific railroad track at Cordelia, Section 12, T4N/R3W, on 
the Cordelia Quadrangle map.
    (26) Then proceed generally west along the Southern Pacific 
railroad track to its intersection with the Napa and Solano Counties 
boundary line in Jameson Canyon at Creston, Section 9, T4N/R3W, on the 
Cordelia Quadrangle map.
    (27) Then proceed generally south-southeast, followed by straight 
west along the Napa and Solano Counties boundary line; continue 
straight west, crossing over the Cuttings Wharf Quadrangle map, to its 
intersection with the east shoreline of Sonoma Creek slough, which 
coincides with the Highway 37 bridge on the Solano County side of the 
creek, T4N/R5W, on the Sears Point Quadrangle.
    (28) Then proceed generally southeast along the north and east 
shorelines of San Pablo Bay, also known as the San Pablo Bay National 
Wildlife Refuge, crossing over the Cuttings Wharf Quadrangle map, to 
its intersection with the Breakwater line, located within the Vallejo 
City boundary and 0.7 mile west-southwest of the beacon, T3N/R4W, on 
the Mare Island Quadrangle.
    (29) Then proceed straight south-southwest 1.2 miles to its 
intersection with the San Pablo Bay shoreline at BM 14, west of Davis 
Point, T3N/R4W, on the Mare Island Quadrangle.
    (30) Then proceed generally south along the contiguous eastern 
shorelines of San Pablo Bay and San Francisco Bay, crossing over the 
Richmond and San Quentin Quadrangle maps, to its intersection with the 
San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge on the Oakland West Quadrangle.
* * * * *

    Signed: March 16, 2007.
John J. Manfreda,
Administrator.
    Approved: November 16, 2007.
Timothy E. Skud,
Deputy Assistant Secretary (Tax, Trade, and Tariff Policy).

    Editorial Note: This document was received at the Office of the 
Federal Register on March 6, 2008.

[FR Doc. E8-4785 Filed 3-6-08; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4810-31-P