ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SAN BERNABE
AND REALIGNMENT OF THE
SAN LUCAS VITICULTURAL AREAS

Washington, DC – The Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) published a final rule in the Federal Register on June 29, 2004, establishing the San Bernabe viticultural area and realigning the San Lucas viticultural area. Both are within the Monterey viticultural area in Monterey County, California, and within California's multi-county Central Coast viticultural area. The establishment of viticultural areas allows vintners to describe more accurately where their wines come from and enables consumers to better identify the wines they purchase.

The San Bernabe viticultural area encompasses 24,796 acres. The realignment of the San Lucas viticultural area transfers 1,281 acres from the northwestern San Lucas area to the southern San Bernabe area. This realignment avoids splitting a large vineyard between the two viticultural areas, prevents overlapping boundary lines between the two viticultural areas, and creates one common boundary line between the San Bernabe viticultural area and the San Lucas viticultural area.

This final rule is effective August 30, 2004.

####.