diff --git a/doc/api.rst b/doc/api.rst
index b97f74d2ba7..2a4cb545b98 100644
--- a/doc/api.rst
+++ b/doc/api.rst
@@ -497,6 +497,7 @@ Advanced API
 
    Variable
    IndexVariable
+   as_variable
    register_dataset_accessor
    register_dataarray_accessor
 
diff --git a/doc/whats-new.rst b/doc/whats-new.rst
index d8e75234bd7..8a79c322740 100644
--- a/doc/whats-new.rst
+++ b/doc/whats-new.rst
@@ -38,6 +38,10 @@ Enhancements
   to ``py.test`` (:issue:`1393`).
   By `Matthew Gidden <https://github.com/gidden>`_.
 
+- ``xarray.core.variable.as_variable`` is now part of the public API and
+  can be accessed using :py:meth:`~xarray.as_variable` (:issue:`1303`).
+  By `Benoit Bovy <https://github.com/benbovy>`_.
+
 - :py:func:`~xarray.align` now supports ``join='exact'``, which raises
   an error instead of aligning when indexes to be aligned are not equal.
   By `Stephan Hoyer <https://github.com/shoyer>`_.
diff --git a/xarray/__init__.py b/xarray/__init__.py
index 858bc3ec047..60ae7f18a1d 100644
--- a/xarray/__init__.py
+++ b/xarray/__init__.py
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 from .core.combine import concat, auto_combine
 from .core.extensions import (register_dataarray_accessor,
                               register_dataset_accessor)
-from .core.variable import Variable, IndexVariable, Coordinate
+from .core.variable import as_variable, Variable, IndexVariable, Coordinate
 from .core.dataset import Dataset
 from .core.dataarray import DataArray
 from .core.merge import merge, MergeError
diff --git a/xarray/core/groupby.py b/xarray/core/groupby.py
index 3c3ed7dcc12..2e31ae5bc2a 100644
--- a/xarray/core/groupby.py
+++ b/xarray/core/groupby.py
@@ -539,7 +539,7 @@ def _combine(self, applied, shortcut=False):
             combined = self._restore_dim_order(combined)
         if coord is not None:
             if shortcut:
-                combined._coords[coord.name] = as_variable(coord, copy=True)
+                combined._coords[coord.name] = as_variable(coord)
             else:
                 combined.coords[coord.name] = coord
         combined = self._maybe_restore_empty_groups(combined)
diff --git a/xarray/core/variable.py b/xarray/core/variable.py
index 34b86275374..ad4836b930f 100644
--- a/xarray/core/variable.py
+++ b/xarray/core/variable.py
@@ -28,14 +28,32 @@
     pass
 
 
-def as_variable(obj, name=None, copy=False):
-    """Convert an object into an Variable.
-
-    - If the object is already an `Variable`, return a shallow copy.
-    - Otherwise, if the object has 'dims' and 'data' attributes, convert
-      it into a new `Variable`.
-    - If all else fails, attempt to convert the object into an `Variable` by
-      unpacking it into the arguments for `Variable.__init__`.
+def as_variable(obj, name=None):
+    """Convert an object into a Variable.
+
+    Parameters
+    ----------
+    obj : object
+        Object to convert into a Variable.
+
+        - If the object is already a Variable, return a shallow copy.
+        - Otherwise, if the object has 'dims' and 'data' attributes, convert
+          it into a new Variable.
+        - If all else fails, attempt to convert the object into a Variable by
+          unpacking it into the arguments for creating a new Variable.
+    name : str, optional
+        If provided:
+
+        - `obj` can be a 1D array, which is assumed to label coordinate values
+          along a dimension of this given name.
+        - Variables with name matching one of their dimensions are converted
+          into `IndexVariable` objects.
+
+    Returns
+    -------
+    var : Variable
+        The newly created variable.
+
     """
     # TODO: consider extending this method to automatically handle Iris and
     # pandas objects.
@@ -47,7 +65,10 @@ def as_variable(obj, name=None, copy=False):
         obj = obj.copy(deep=False)
     elif hasattr(obj, 'dims') and (hasattr(obj, 'data') or
                                    hasattr(obj, 'values')):
-        obj = Variable(obj.dims, getattr(obj, 'data', obj.values),
+        obj_data = getattr(obj, 'data', None)
+        if obj_data is None:
+            obj_data = getattr(obj, 'values')
+        obj = Variable(obj.dims, obj_data,
                        getattr(obj, 'attrs', None),
                        getattr(obj, 'encoding', None))
     elif isinstance(obj, tuple):
@@ -75,7 +96,7 @@ def as_variable(obj, name=None, copy=False):
                         'explicit list of dimensions: %r' % obj)
 
     if name is not None and name in obj.dims:
-        # convert the into an Index
+        # convert the Variable into an Index
         if obj.ndim != 1:
             raise ValueError(
                 '%r has more than 1-dimension and the same name as one of its '
diff --git a/xarray/tests/test_variable.py b/xarray/tests/test_variable.py
index aa061516949..f5d207d0978 100644
--- a/xarray/tests/test_variable.py
+++ b/xarray/tests/test_variable.py
@@ -609,11 +609,14 @@ def test_no_conflicts(self):
     def test_as_variable(self):
         data = np.arange(10)
         expected = Variable('x', data)
+        expected_extra = Variable('x', data, attrs={'myattr': 'val'},
+                                  encoding={'scale_factor': 1})
 
         self.assertVariableIdentical(expected, as_variable(expected))
 
         ds = Dataset({'x': expected})
-        self.assertVariableIdentical(expected, as_variable(ds['x']).to_base_variable())
+        var = as_variable(ds['x']).to_base_variable()
+        self.assertVariableIdentical(expected, var)
         self.assertNotIsInstance(ds['x'], Variable)
         self.assertIsInstance(as_variable(ds['x']), Variable)
 
@@ -621,8 +624,20 @@ def test_as_variable(self):
         fake_xarray = FakeVariable(expected.values, expected.dims)
         self.assertVariableIdentical(expected, as_variable(fake_xarray))
 
-        xarray_tuple = (expected.dims, expected.values)
-        self.assertVariableIdentical(expected, as_variable(xarray_tuple))
+        FakeVariable = namedtuple('FakeVariable', 'data dims')
+        fake_xarray = FakeVariable(expected.data, expected.dims)
+        self.assertVariableIdentical(expected, as_variable(fake_xarray))
+
+        FakeVariable = namedtuple('FakeVariable',
+                                  'data values dims attrs encoding')
+        fake_xarray = FakeVariable(expected_extra.data, expected_extra.values,
+                                   expected_extra.dims, expected_extra.attrs,
+                                   expected_extra.encoding)
+        self.assertVariableIdentical(expected_extra, as_variable(fake_xarray))
+
+        xarray_tuple = (expected_extra.dims, expected_extra.values,
+                        expected_extra.attrs, expected_extra.encoding)
+        self.assertVariableIdentical(expected_extra, as_variable(xarray_tuple))
 
         with self.assertRaisesRegexp(TypeError, 'tuples to convert'):
             as_variable(tuple(data))
@@ -637,6 +652,15 @@ def test_as_variable(self):
         expected = Variable([], 0)
         self.assertVariableIdentical(expected, actual)
 
+        data = np.arange(9).reshape((3, 3))
+        expected = Variable(('x', 'y'), data)
+        with self.assertRaisesRegexp(
+                ValueError, 'without explicit dimension names'):
+            as_variable(data, name='x')
+        with self.assertRaisesRegexp(
+                ValueError, 'has more than 1-dimension'):
+            as_variable(expected, name='x')
+
     def test_repr(self):
         v = Variable(['time', 'x'], [[1, 2, 3], [4, 5, 6]], {'foo': 'bar'})
         expected = dedent("""