American wine
The United States has achieved a leading position on the international wine market in a relatively short time. In the 1970s, began a veritable wine boom. The United States is one for several decades the most important wine-producing countries of the world. According to statistics from the International Organisation of Vine and Wine ( OIV), the U.S. took in 2011 to France, Italy and Spain 4th in the produced quantity in hectoliters worldwide. The production amounts to about 18-20 million hectoliters of wine per year. About 405,000 hectares are planted with vines. This also means, according to the above-mentioned countries, the fourth place worldwide.
The wines produced from internationally well-known red and white grape varieties are world leaders. Viticulture in the U.S. and found mainly takes place in California. The wines, for example, from the Napa Valley, Sonoma Valley, in Santa Cruz and Mendocino occupy top positions in international comparison samples.
Emerging wine regions are also Oregon and Washington: When Pinot Noir, a grape that less high demands on the climate represents as, for example, the Cabernet Sauvignon to Oregon has already developed the secret challenger to its large southern neighbor California. The local climate is still mild despite its northerly location. 25 of 50 States now have one or more so-called American Viticultural Area, AVA shortly. These are fixed, well-defined appellations for wine.
History of wine in the U.S.
The origins date back to the 16th century. In the near Jacksonville in Florida laid in 1562 Huguenots to the first vineyards. The actual viticulture began but 200 years later:
Junipero Serra in 1769 led, a Franciscan from Mexico, settlers from Mexico into the area, which is known as San Diego today. The gold rush mid 19th century altered the northern part of California for good. Immigrants from France, Italy, Germany, England and other countries were attracted, settled in the country and also brought wine-growing terms with expertise to California.
Among other things, the completion of the transcontinental railway in 1869, the California wines were quickly spread to the east of America and later in many European countries. The exclamations of Prohibition brought the entire American wine industry in 1919, a major setback. By the end of Prohibition in 1933, the majority of vineyards were cleared and planted with table grapes.
Few commercial wine producers survived Prohibition, by establishing a wine for religious purposes. Due to the Great Depression and the Second World War it took until the end of the 1940s, to the structure of the wine industry got under way again.
On 24 May 1976, the British wine merchant Steven Spurrier organized in Paris a blind tasting of wines from France and the USA by experienced French wine critics. This has become known as a wine jury of Paris tasting wines from the U.S. outperformed both the red and the white wines than French.
In recent years, European wineries and wine producers bought an amplified in the California wine market. Winemakers from France, Germany, Italy, Spain and many other countries are involved in the California wine industry.
Wine-growing states in the USA
Wine production there is in the U.S. now available in all states, even in southern Alaska and Hawaii. The main productions are in
- Arizona
- Idaho
- California (→ Viticulture in California )
- New Mexico
- New York ( → Viticulture in New York)
- North Carolina ( → Viticulture in North Carolina)
- Ohio ( → Viticulture in Ohio)
- Oregon ( → Viticulture in Oregon)
- Texas
- Virginia ( → Viticulture in Virginia)
- Washington
Varieties
Red Grapes
- Barbera
- Cabernet Sauvignon
- Cabernet Franc
- Carignan
- Chancellor
- Gamay
- Amay
- Grenache
- Merlot
- Pinot noir
- Rubired
- Sangiovese
- Shiraz ( Syrah)
- Zinfandel
White Grapes
- Chardonnay
- Chenin Blanc
- Gewürztraminer
- Riesling
- Sauvignon Blanc
- Sémillion
- Vidal Blanc
- Viognier
Predicates and legal regulations
- In the U.S. there are, as in most wine regions no system of quality levels depending on the must weight.
- Qualitatively higher or tieferrangige appellations do not exist.
- In the production of grapes there are no legal quantity limits.
- The grape varieties policy is liberal.
- Compared with the addition of acid, water, sugar water, and wood chips for flavoring you are a liberal.
- In the U.S. it is allowed to operate Weinfraktionierung, so to disassemble into its component parts and wine to create new compositions with the individual components ( art of wine). Since 1 January 2006, the import of these wines is permitted in the EU.
- In the United States in wine production allows everything that is not explicitly prohibited. Herein lies the fundamental difference to the Wine Law of the European Union, in principle, everything is forbidden that is not regulated by law.