We are currently travelling through the US and spent last night in Dallas, Texas. Here I learned that they are about more than Stetsons, Steaks and Southfork – they also produce wine!
When thinking of American wine, I guess most people’s thoughts go straight to the Napa and Sonoma valleys in California and a few might know that there are some vines at the East Coast. Interestingly enough, wine grapes are grown and wine produced in all fifty states of America!
I thought to share a few quick facts on the American wine industry:
- America has been producing wine for over 300 years.
- 89% of all US wines are produced in California.
- The United States is the fourth largest wine producing country in the world after France, Italy, and Spain.
- In many areas native species of grapes are better suited to the climate – species such as Vitis labrusca, Vitis riparia, Vitis rotundifolia, and Vitis vulpine.
- The US wine industry was really established with the introduction of the European Vitis vinifera by European settlers.
- Today there are more than 1,100,000 acres (4,500 km2) under vine.
- The United States is the sixth most planted country in the world after France, Italy, Spain, China and Turkey.
- The earliest wine made was from the Scuppernong grapes by French Huguenot settlers at a settlement near Jacksonville, Florida between 1562 and 1564.
- Wine made from the various native grapes had flavours which were unfamiliar.
- Early plantings of Vitis vinifera were met with failure as native pest and vine disease ravaged the vineyards.
- In 1683, William Penn planted a vineyard of French vinifera in Pennsylvania that may have interbred with a native Vitis labrusca vine to create the hybrid grape Alexander.
- Today French-American hybrid grapes are the staples of wine production on the East Coast.
- The first commercial vineyard and winery in the United States was established by an act of the Kentucky General Assembly on November 21, 1799.
- In California, the first vineyard and winery was established by the Franciscan missionary Junípero Serra near San Diego in 1769.
- The first vineyards in the Sonoma valley were planted by Franciscan monks at Mission San Francisco Solano in 1823.
- John Patchett established the Napa Valley’s first commercial vineyard in 1858.
- The first commercially successful winery in the United States was founded in Cincinnati, Ohio in the mid-1830s by Nicholas Longworth, who made a sparkling wine from Catawba grapes.
- In the late 19th century, the phylloxera epidemic in the West and Pierce’s disease in the East ravaged the growing American wine industry.
- Prohibition (from 1920 – 1933) forbade the manufacturing, sale and transport of alcohol. Exceptions were made for sacramental wine used for religious purposes and some wineries were able to maintain their facilities under those auspices. Others resorted to bootlegging. Home winemaking also became common, allowed through exemptions for sacramental wines and production for home use.
- Following the repeal of Prohibition, American wine making re-emerged in very poor condition.
- Before Prohibition dry table wines outsold sweet wines by three to one, but after the ratio was more than reversed.
- In 1935, 81% of California’s production was sweet wines.
- In the 1970s and 1980s, success by Californian winemakers helped to secure foreign investment dollars from other winemaking regions, most notably the Champenois. • In 2012, wine sales in the U.S. from all production sources—California, other U.S. states and foreign countries—increased 2% from the previous year to a new record of 360.1 million 9-liter cases with an estimated retail value of $34.6 billion.
- Of the total, almost two-thirds or 207.7 million cases of California wine account for a 58% share of U.S. wine sales with an estimated retail value of $22 billion.
- Including exports, 2012 California wine shipments to all markets in the U.S. and abroad reached 250.2 million cases.
- According to Nielsen, Wine sales in U.S. food stores and other off-premise measured channels from all domestic and foreign producers grew 2% by volume and 6% by value.
- California wines grew faster than the overall category by a full percentage point. • By varietal in the table wine category, Chardonnay remained the most popular varietal with a 21% share of volume, followed by Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% volume share; Merlot, 9% share, and Pinot Grigio/Gris, 8% share.
- The largest percentage gains were Muscat/Moscato, up 33% in volume with 6% market share, and domestic red blends/sweet red wines, up 22% in volume with 5% share of market.
- Also of note was Malbec, up 21% by volume with a 1% share.
- Europe is the top destination for California Wines accounting for $485 million, followed by Canada, Hong Kong, Japan, China, Vietnam, Mexico and South Korea.
- Starbucks is now serving wine in some key markets!
