Eugene, Ore.—King Estate Winery in Oregon announced it had successfully petitioned the federal government to expand the Willamette Valley AVA by 29 square miles to include the winery and estate vineyards.

According to a statement released by the winery, The U.S. Treasury Department’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) approved the request on March 3, 2016. This is the first time since it was established in 1983 that the Willamette Valley AVA has been expanded.

“King Estate is proud to be associated even more strongly with the Willamette Valley, where most of our grapes have always come from,” said CEO Ed King.

In approving King Estate’s request, the TTB agreed that its soils, elevations and temperatures are similar to those found within the existing Willamette Valley AVA. The Willamette Valley AVA was formed around a roughly 1,000-foot elevation boundary, because that is the maximum elevation for successful viticulture in this region of Oregon. King Estate’s vines are planted between 600 and 1,050 feet in elevation, well within the current AVA range of 115 to 1,630 feet.

“This modest expansion of the Willamette Valley AVA is entirely congruent with the attributes of this wine region,” said David Beck, chairman of the Oregon Wine Board, which supported the expansion request.