About California

In the United States wine is produced commercially in all fifty states including Hawaii and Alaska, however the majority of wine is produced in California. California, which accounts for about 90% of American wine production, would be the fourth largest producer of wine in the world if it were a country.

There is a diverse range of landscapes, soils, and climates with conditions to produce a staggering variety of wines in North America. From the vast central plains, mountains in the west, hills and low mountains in the east, rugged mountains and broad river valleys in Alaska and rugged, volcanic topography in Hawaii. Until the mid 1980s, American wines, even by major wine companies, were not made with exports in mind. Many wine producing regions in the US are primarily from only four states (California, New York, Washington, and Oregon).

The Viking explorer, Leif Ericson, landed in Newfoundland in 1000AD and named the continent Vineland due to the abundance of wine vines growing. Though there are an abundance of indigenous grape varieties such as Aurora, Baco Noir, Catawba, Cayuga White, Chelois, Concord, Norton, Ravat, Villard, Melody, Isabella, vinification of these indigenous grapes did not succeed in obtaining quality wine. Today, North America native varieties have been largely replaced by European varieties for production of fine wines.

Following two hundred years of successes and failures, U.S. wine received international recognition at the historic Paris Wine Tasting of 1976. There, in a blind tasting conducted by the crème de la crème of French wine experts, the French selected U.S. wines as the winners of the competition. In the white category, a California wine won not only first place, but three of the top four were from California. The quality of Californian wines has been met with widespread astonishment and New World wines became a force to be reckoned with.

California is divided into 58 counties of which 47 produce wines. California can be divided into three main climatic zones - the areas of coastal influence (including Mendocino County), the huge hot Central Valley, and the cool foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The coastal zones like Mendocino County are the most important in terms of quality wine production, which retain the natural acidity in the grapes and are organically grown.

Capital:	Sacramento
Official Language(s):	English and Spanish (unofficial)
Government:	Constitution-based Federal Republic
Geographic Coordinates:	38° 00’ N, 97° 00’ W
Population (2006 est.):	298,444,215
Per Capita GPD (2005 est.):	$41,800
Currency:	US Dollar (USD)
Bordering Countries:	Canada, Mexico
Total Wine Consumption (2001):	24,166,000 hectoliters
Per Capita Wine Consumption (2001):	8.77 liters per capita
Total Wine Production (2001):	21,300,000 hectoliters
Total Vineyard Acreage (2001):	971,000 acres
Indigenous Grape Varieties:	Aurora, Baco Noir, Catawba, Cayuga White, Chelois, Concord, Norton, Ravat, Villard, Melody, Isabella, Elvira
Cheers in English:	Cheers!