The appellation expands across all or portions of Alamance, Caswell, Chatham, Guilford, Orange, and Rockingham Counties being accessible between the state's largest metropolitan areas of Greensboro to the west, and Durham-Raleigh to the east on Interstate 40.

After the arrival of the first Europeans in the 16th century, the Sissipahaws eventually abandoned their villages along the Haw River and joined indigenous tribes in other parts of the North Carolina Piedmont.

In the early 1700’s John Lawson, an English naturalist and surveyor, wrote an account of his party crossing the "famous Hau-River" to get a safe distance from the Sissipahaw Indians.

[5] Haw River Valley had a pre-Prohibition viticulture industry, when North Carolina produced the most wine than any other state, centered on its native Muscadine vine.

When the tobacco market waned in the 90s, viticulture made a resurgence in the valley the last quarter century as the rest of North Carolina.

According to the petitioner, the distinguishing features of the Haw River Valley viticultural area include its geology, soils, elevation, and climate.

The combination of the underlying geology of the Haw River Valley and its inland, non-mountainous geography influences the soils and the climate and creates a unique grape-growing region.

[3] The elevations in the Haw River Valley viticultural area range from 350 ft (107 m) at the southeastern boundary corner to over 800 ft (244 m) at the northwestern boundary corner, according to elevation maps by John Boyer (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 2001) that the North Carolina Grape Council provided.

In contrast, the age of the rock units of the Yadkin Valley region, in the western part of the Piedmont Province, date back approximately 1.5 billion years.

The Haw River Valley region, including its rock units, is the geological result of volcanic metamorphism and igneous activity stemming from island arcs.

[3] Haw River Valley viticultural area lies in the Carolina Slate Belt, a result of tectonic movements of the North American and African continental plates.

[3] The climatic features that distinguish the Haw River Valley viticultural area are precipitation, air temperature, and growing season.

The annual frost-free growing season of the Haw River Valley viticultural area runs from April 1 to November 1 and totals 214 days.

In the central portion of the Haw River Valley viticultural area, the soils formed in residuum from mafic intrusive rocks.

In these areas the Georgeville and Herndon soils are very deep and well drained, and have a loamy surface layer, a clayey subsoil, moderate permeability, and good internal structure.

They vary in depth depending on the underlying soft and hard bedrock; consequently, they have poor internal drainage and perch water during wet periods.

West of the Haw River Valley viticultural area, most soils formed in saprolite weathered from igneous intrusive rocks and some gneisses and schists of the Charlotte Belt.

Pioneering vintners and farmers hired Napa Valley consultants to explore North Carolina properties as prospective vineyards transforming retired tobacco farms with vine trellises.

By the 2000s, Haw River Valley’s 60 acres (24 ha) of vineyards were sourcing North Carolina wineries that produced quality vintages.