Despite its long history and America's enormous natural resources, the U.S. wine industry began to grow seriously in the 1960s and 1970s. Today U.S.A. are the fourth producer of wine in the world after Italy, France and Spain. Today the U.S. accounts for 9.6% of the world's grape production accomplished on only 3.8% of the world's vineyard acreage.
The U.S. represents about 7% of world wine production together with 73 million gallons of export which represent about 3% of the world export market. The amount of wine sales in U.S.A. in 2004 reached the number of 627 million gallons: 558 million gallons were represented by table wine, 41 million gallons by dessert wine and champagne and sparkling wine accounted for the last 28 million gallons.Wine-making establishments vary from family-based enterprises to huge national concerns. E. and J. Gallo winery is today the biggest wine enterprise in the world. At the beginning of its history the American wine industry was oriented towards the production of everyday table wines, often sold in half or one gallon container. At the beginning of the 1980s only 20% of the output was represented by good or premium wines. Therefore, the interest towards quality started to be the main focus of producers, and today U.S. wine industry can compete in several cases with the giants of wine. Another limitation of American wine industry has been, until very recent times, the use of very few grape varieties: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, Zinfandel and Chardonnay. The result has been a very limited choice on the shelves in terms of winemaking expressions. Fortunately today, the number of different grapes cultivated and vinified is growing fastly, and with this the general quality of wines. Wine production in the U.S. is dominated by California, which accounts for some 67% of the country's output. The second producer in order of acreage is New York and the third is Washington. Quality wise, California, Washington and Oregon are the major players. The grape varieties used are mostly the European Vitis Vinifera or American hybrids developed from them.
