Fair Play AVA
California wine region in El Dorado County
Fair Play is an American Viticultural Area (AVA) located in El Dorado County, California. It was established as the nation's 139th, the state's 84th and the county's third appellation on February 26, 2001 by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) after reviewing the petition submitted by Brian Fitzpatrick, President of Fair Play Winery Association, proposing a viticultural area in southern El Dorado County known as "Fair Play."
The viticultural area encompasses 21,000 acres (33 sq mi) encircling the town of Fair Play and located entirely within the existing boundaries of the El Dorado and vast Sierra Foothills AVAs. The topography of Fair Play includes rolling hills at elevations between 2,000 and 3,000 feet (610–910 m) above sea level, making it the second highest average elevation after Squaw Valley-Miramonte viticultural area in the state. The soils are decomposed granite as part of the Sierra Nevada Foothills region, and the area is within the Cosumnes River watershed. In its cultivated 350 acres (140 ha), the most popular red wine grape variety is Zinfandel, although varieties popular in Rhône Valley and Italy, such as Syrah, Grenache, Petite Sirah, Mourvedre, Sangiovese, Tempranillo and Barbera are the common varietals. White wine is less popular in Fair Play, but significant plantings of Viognier and Grenache Blanc, along with Sauvignon Blanc are most common.
History
Fair Play viticultural area takes its name from an old gold mining camp during the California gold rush. Although Fair Play was at first only a mining camp, the town later became a trading center and post office for drift and hydraulic mines in the area. The Alta Californian newspaper dated December 21, 1853, mentions Fair Play as a prosperous little mining town with several stores and hotels.
The first commercial vineyard and winery in the viticultural area was established in 1887 by a Civil War veteran, Horace Bigelow.
The public source identifies “Fair Play AVA” as california wine region in El Dorado County. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Fair, Play and California.
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Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1393017. The Library of Congress control number is sh2017003785. Authority coordinates are 38.597, -120.657. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2001, 1853 and 1887.
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This entry incorporates text from “Fair Play AVA” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.