Cal. AVA spelling question

I see the Santa Rita Hills AVA usually shortened to Sta. Rita Hills in the wine literature. All the other Santa's (Christmas pun intended), Maria,Lucia,Barbara,Ynez etc. are not abbreviated that way. Anyone know why? Obviously all my presents are already wrapped and I am stuck indoors during a blizzard and bored!

it's a resolution of conflict about use of the name Santa Rita, already in use in Chile

Yup....exactly as Steve says. It was originally approved by the BATF (back then) as "Santa Rita Hills". Then the
Santa Rita Wnry in Chile brought a lawsuit to forbid that usage, because the crappy wines coming out of the SRH
would besmirch the fine reputation of those great SantaRitaWnry wines. So...the compromise worked out by
folks in the SRH was to change the AVA designation to Sta.RitaHills, thereby leaving the SantaRitaWnry atop the
heap of wines labeled SantaRita.
Tom

Ooooh, snarky TomHill.

Simple and standard response attempting to protect an established brand name...to which courts must have ascribed merit, else the issue would not have needed to be resolved.

Ooooh, snarky TomHill. .

Uhhhhhh...I do have a reputation to maintain, Hoke!!!!
Tom

I knew I could count on you three vinous experts to clear up this conundrum!

With "vinous experts" like us, Jim, it only takes one. The other two are busy quibbling pointlessly at each other.