wine: American Wine

Although in the past American vintners largely were satisfied with quantity production and imitations—largely in name only—of foreign wines, since the mid-1960s the quality domestic wine industry has grown, and many excellent and some superb wines have been made in the United States. Wine is produced in many states; California is the nation's richest wine-producing state, followed by New York and the Pacific Northwest states. In California and the Northwest, grapes of the Old World species, Vitis vinifera, are grown, and some of the varieties produced from these grapes have come to rival the finest French wines. Some of the best wines come from the Napa Valley area north of San Francisco. Distinguished wines from that region include cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay, and zinfandel. Eastern wines, most of them from New York state—especially the Finger Lakes region—were long made mainly from native grapes such as Concords, Catawbas, and the southern scuppernong, but many are now produced from the Old World species and hybrids.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• Other Countries
• American Wine
• Italian Wine
• German Wine
• French Wine
• Production
• Characteristics
• Bibliography

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

See more Encyclopedia articles on: Alcoholic Beverages