American Wine -- Some Stats

California dominates American wine production accounting for almost 90% of all wine made, and is home to about one-half of all wineries. Washington, New York and Oregon are next in wine production with another 7% of all American wine. That leaves the other 46 states to divide up the remaining 3%. In number of wineries after California is Washington, Oregon, New York, and Virginia. Overall, the U.S. is 4th in wine production behind France, Italy and Spain. China is number five.

Within California, Napa and Sonoma are the most well-known wine regions. What you may find surprising is that each is responsible for only about 4% of the state's total wine production. The entire North Coast region that includes Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino, Lake, Solano and Marin counties is home to over half of the state's wineries.

By acres of wine grapes planted the top California counties are San Joaquin, Sonoma, Monterey, Napa, Fresno, Madera, and San Luis Obispo. San Joaquin, Fresno and Madera are in the Central Valley; the others are coastal areas. More telling, you'll find the tons of grapes harvested per acre to be much smaller in place like Napa and Sonoma compared to the Central Valley (quality over quantity).

In California there are over 4,000 wineries and 6,000 grape growers on 500,000 acres of grapes. About two-thirds of all the wine sold in the U.S. is from California. Every year about 15 million visitors come to the various wine regions in the state. Disneyland is the #1 tourist destination; wine tasting #2.  Which would you rather be doing this summer?

image from latimes.com