New Wine Region Includes Parts of NW Illinois

Via tribune Wine writer Bill Daley: the Treasury Department's Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau has just designated a new wine viticultural area encompassing 29,914 square miles in four states, including Carroll, Jo Davies, Lee, Ogle, Rock Island, Stephenson, Whiteside and Winnebago counties in northwest Illinois. Beginning July 22, any wineries within the Upper Mississippi River Valley Appellation — the nation's largest designated winemaking region — can use the designation on their labels, which gives consumers a sense of where the wine is from. More detailed information can be found here.