The Mighty Mississip

Gretchen Neuman
VinoVerve Editor

Being that it is Spring Break, 2009 in the Neuman household, we decided to try to get away at least for the weekend. Someplace close enough for us to go to without taking too much time since we like to drive but somewhere we can see interesting sites and try new things.

Our choice for this weekend?

Memphis, Tennessee.  Home of St. Jude’s Hospital, Sun Records, Graceland, Miley Cyrus and the birthplace of  The Blues, Rock and Roll, and Crunk.

So, as is my tradition…. I looked to see what kind of wine opportunities might exist in Tennessee… particularly around Memphis. Because we grownups should have something to look forward to also.  And on Wikipedia, I found this:

A small portion of the Mississippi Delta AVA, a designated American Viticultural Area extends into the southwestern part of the state.

Southwestern part of the state? That sounds like perfect Memphian territory. And so I checked. And because there is no map that I can find of the AVA, I checked with the records from the TTB (formerly the ATF) and mapped the AVA myself, so that I would know which parts of Tenneessee would be included in the AVA.

What did I find?

Well, even though the AVA is in Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee, the lions share of it is really in Mississippi. and by that I mean 99.827%. Less than 6,500 acres are in Lousiana and less than 243 acres are in Tenneessee.1.

And the portions of the AVA that are in the other states are largely there because of changes in the flow of the river or due to the ways that the levies were built.

Sigh.

So, I guess I won’t be having any Mississippi Delta wine on this trip.

But since I mapped the AVA, I figured I would share it with you. Maybe, one of you has been to one of the wineries and can tell me about their wine.

1. Thank you to Area and Distance Calculator By : mikebrewer.co.uk on Google Maps for helping me calculate the area. It would have taken me alot longer to figure it out…

Tags: Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee

This entry was posted on April 17, 2009 at 12:01 am and is filed under Gretchen Neuman, Stephen T Colbert Memorial Better Know an AVA, Win(e)ding Roads. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.