It was during those Wild West days that winemaking on Mount Veeder was first recorded. In 1864, Captain Stelham Wing presented the first Mount Veeder bottling at the Napa County Fair, a wine hailing from today's Wing Canyon Vineyard.

Insiders say that the next area likely to gain AVA status is Naches Heights, which is situated north of Yakima.

The county also is part of California's Central Coast winegrowing region. It encompasses the coastal areas of Monterey Bay and Big Sur, as well as the vast Salinas Valley and smaller Carmel Valley, bordered by the Santa Lucia and Gabilan mountain ranges.

The large size of the county, as well as the Pacific Ocean's climatic influence, makes Monterey wine country unique and diverse.

Hint: It's not in South America.

Give up?

And even though it comes from someone who writes for the New York Law Journal--sort of like a movie being recommended by the "film critic" for the Greater Podunk Express and Shopper--no truer words ever were written.

And it's being made in one of the country's newest American Viticultural Areas, known as the Outer Coastal Plain.

The area encompasses approximately 2.25 million acres, including all or parts of Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cumberland, Cape May, Gloucester, Monmouth, Ocean and Salem counties...

This special appellation owes its distinctive climate to the fact that it is positioned well above the valley floor. Because of its altitude, evening temperatures generally are warmer and daytime temperatures are much cooler, leveling out spikes in heat that tend to be more exaggerated at lower elevations.

Although it gets nearly twice as much rainfall as the valley below, the soil tends to be dry because rocky, porous soil conditions allow for adequate drainage and less accumulation...

Today, thanks to the sparkling wine to which the region has given its name, the word Champagne is known worldwide.

The region is essentially made up of areas of relatively flat agricultural land and other areas of gently undulating hills. The hills are higher and more pronounced in the north of the region - the area of the Ardennes - and in the south, known as the Plateau de Langres...

Any of the five provinces that shape the Castilla-La Mancha community is worth a visit, discovering its customs and festivals, its rich craftsmanship and its varied gastronomy, underwritten by products with a "Guarantee of Origin."

The big daddy of them all is aptly named D.O. La Mancha, the largest single wine region in the world. Its gargantuan dimensions spread into four different provinces, allowing for not only lots of wine, but a great deal of variety, too...

No country better defines its wine types by region than France. In Champagne, many of the world's finest sparkling wines are made. In Bordeaux, coveted bottlings of Cabernet Sauvignon-based blends are crafted. And in Burgundy, the white wine is Chardonnay, and the red wine is Pinot Noir.

Burgundian wines are "governed" by laws passed in 1905 and 1919, delineating rankings and defining appellation boundaries...