It was recognized on February 7, 2003, by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF), Treasury after reviewing the petition submitted by Patricia McRitchie of McRitchie Associates, LLC, on behalf of Shelton Vineyards, Inc., Dobson, North Carolina, to establish the initial viticultural area within the State of North Carolina, to be known as "Yadkin Valley."

[7][8] The first known written use of the name Yadkin was in 1674 in the writing of an early trader, Abraham Wood, whose English scouts passed through the area in 1673.

They originally scouted land in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Boone, North Carolina, but did not find a satisfactory site for settlement.

These early settlers were meticulous recordkeepers and references to the Yadkin Valley can be found in their colonial writings as well as in later sources.

References to the Yadkin Valley can also be found in histories of the region during the American Revolution and the Civil War periods.

An influx of settlers who farmed the Valley’s rich soil characterized the period immediately after the Civil War.

[11][14] One of the first modern major plantings of vinifera grapes in North Carolina occurred in 1972, when Jack Kroustalis established Westbend Vineyards, located in the Yadkin Valley.

There are currently two additional wineries under construction in the viticultural area, and the Yadkin Valley Wine Grower’s Cooperative was recently incorporated.

Spurred on by the tremendous interest in grape growing, the College initiated a two-year viticulture program, which began in the fall of 2000.

The program will educate future grape growers to take advantage of the favorable growing environment provided by the Yadkin Valley.

In December of 2000, the Golden LEAF Foundation awarded the College over $130,000 to support the establishment of a demonstration vineyard and winery for use by students in the program.

[1][15] The rocks and subsequent soils of the Blue Ridge and Piedmont Physiographic Provinces of the viticultural area have origins extending back to the early formation of the earth’s continental landmasses.

Each of these cycles required several hundred million years during which the ongoing uplift and erosional wearing down processes were constantly active.

During a period of three hundred million years, following the build up of this original Appalachian Mountain system, the forces of weather and erosion have likely removed thousands of meters of rock with the resulting Piedmont and Blue Ridge surfaces of today.

The highly complex rocks of the present day Blue Ridge and Piedmont provinces represent a core area that has been present and re-crystallized and re-metamorphosed through several of these mountain building cycles to produce the complex schists, gneisses and igneous rocks of today.

Relics of a couple of the hot spots that re-crystallized rock are the granites of Mount Airy and Stone Mountain, North Carolina.

The weathering of these Piedmont rocks has produced soils with chemical and physical properties that are very amenable to the viticulture industry.

These soils and the climate of the Yadkin Valley viticultural area cover a spectrum that is equal to most vineyards of Europe and California.

After the Yadkin River’s origin and descent from mountain springs in the Blowing Rock, North Carolina area, it encounters a major structural feature known as the Brevard Shear Zone (fault system), which also defines the Blue Ridge Escarpment in the area, paralleled by the river.

At the base of the Blue Ridge Escarpment, the Yadkin River turns and flows northeastward under the structural control of this shear zone for a distance of approximately 50 mi (80 km) before bending to the east between the northeast end of the Brushy Mountains and Pilot Mountain.

[1] Data for precipitation, temperature and heat summation were provided by the State Climate Office of North Carolina.

Using Amerine and Winkler heat summation definitions, the viticultural area is in climatic Region IV, with 3743 degree-days.

[1] The soils of the Yadkin Valley viticultural area are formed mainly from residuum (saprolite) weathered from felsic metamorphic rocks (gneisses, schists, and phyllites) of the Blue Ridge Geologic Belt and the Smith River Allochothon and from metamorphosed granitic rocks of the inner Piedmont Belt.

The extreme southeastern part of the area is formed from saprolite weathered from igneous intrusive rocks (granites, gabbros and diorites) and some gneisses and schists, all of the Charlotte Belt.

The soil series that formed in residuum from the mafic intrusive rocks (gabbros and diorites), which occur scattered along the extreme southeastern part of the viticultural area, have slightly better natural fertility.

However, the Enon and Iredell series have high shrink-swell clayey subsoils, which perch water during wet periods and result in less than desirable internal drainage.

Early attempts to grow the European wine grape, Vitis vinifera, in the southeastern United States, including 18th century efforts by Thomas Jefferson at Monticello, Virginia, had mixed success.

But in the past two to three decades, viticultural research has helped these grapes to survive the climate, soil, and pests of the region.

[21] Southern Living Magazine also featured North Carolina's viticulture industry and Yadkin Valley wineries in November 2007.