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USA

United States of America (GB)
Stati Uniti d’America (I)
Verenigde Staten van Amerika (N)
Estados Unidos da América (PO)
Estados Unidos de América (ES)
États-Unis d'Amérique (F)

The United States of America (USA for short) covers 9,525,067 km², which corresponds to around 6.5% of the Earth's total land area and has 340 million inhabitants. The state comprises almost 40% of the subcontinent of North America and the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific. It consists of 50 states with the capital Washington D.C. (not to be confused with the state of Washington), which is a federal district in its own right, as well as the external territories (US sovereignty) of the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico (Caribbean), and American Oceania (islands and atolls in the Pacific; the three largest are American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands).

USA - Flagge und Wappen

The contiguous "Lower 48" (Contiguous United States) together with Alaska, from which they are separated by Canadian territory, form the Continental United States. The state of Hawaii and some smaller outlying areas are located in the Pacific and the Caribbean. With a total area of 9,826,630 million km², the USA is the fourth largest country in the world.

USA - Landkarte

The 50 US states in alphabetical order are Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Deleware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, California, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

History

On Friday, 12 October 1492, an unnamed sailor sighted land from the Spanish caravel "Pinta" at 2.00 am. It was the Bahamian island of Guanahani, the name in the indigenous language at the time (as it is called again today), which Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) called San Salvador. This is still regarded as the day of the discovery of America and the New World. But 500 years before Columbus, someone else had already set foot on the American continent. Around the year 1000, the Icelandic Viking Leif Eriksson (son of the Greenland explorer Erik the Red) travelled south from Greenland and reached the American coast. He called the area "Vinland". Whether the name actually means Vinland "wine country" is not certain, it could also have meant "pasture" or "grazing land" or "meadow". There have been many attempts to identify the exact location; one version names the island of Manhattan on the site of New York, another a location near the present-day city of Boston in the state of Massachusetts.

USA - 1 Dollar Schein mit Darstellung der Entdeckung Amerikas

The American historian Frederick J. Pohl (1889-1991) writes in his book "The lost discovery" that it was - a little further north - Massachusetts Bay on the site of the city of Boston. According to a written report - the Grenlinga saga - Leif Eriksson found rolling hills, numerous game, salmon, wild wheat and, in the forests, masses of wild vines with berries of enormous size hanging from the trees. One crew member left some grapes lying around until they began to ferment and was found drunk. Leif's brother-in-law Thorfinn Karlsefni then tried to establish a settlement, but due to fierce resistance from the natives, who resembled Indians or Eskimos, colonisation had to be abandoned after a few years.

Colonisation of America

When the first colonists landed on the east coast of America towards the end of the 16th century, they made the same discovery as Eriksson. Grapes with huge fruits grew in the forests. But for the most part, the wild vines could not be used to produce tasty wine. This is because American vines, particularly of the Vitis labrusca species, produce a wine with an unpleasant foxy or penetrating strawberry flavour. For this reason, grape varieties introduced from Europe were soon tried along the entire Atlantic coast from Massachusetts in the north to Florida in the far south. But these soon died after planting. The American soil was literally saturated with phylloxera and was also plagued by mildew, which was unknown in Europe, other diseases and extreme climatic conditions. Many of the American vines were resistant to these plagues thanks to millions of years of adaptation, but the European vines were defenceless against them. The causes were not recognised for over 200 years and were only clarified when phylloxera and mildew were introduced to Europe and combated in the last third of the 19th century.

The beginning of viticulture

The first US President George Washington (1732-1799) and the third President Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), the author of the Declaration of Independence, were great supporters of wine culture. Jefferson was convinced that the only way to prevent Americans from consuming stronger alcoholic beverages such as whisky was through an appropriate wine culture and sufficient quantities of wine. This was supported by a law in 1791, all alcoholic beverages were subject to an excise tax and only wine produced in America was exempt. He also conducted decades of experiments with European and American vines at his Monticello vineyard in Virginia. However, his dream of making the USA a top wine-growing nation was never realised during his lifetime.

From the beginning of the 19th century, a virtue was finally made of necessity and attempts were made to accept the uniqueness of American grape varieties. Hybrids were bred throughout the country or attempts were made to produce wine from the existing American varieties. As early as 1562, French Huguenots who had emigrated from their homeland due to religious persecution planted vineyards near Jacksonville in Florida. They used a wild ancestor of the white Scuppernong variety that is still planted today, which they gradually cultivated and also made wine from. In 1843, Ephraim Wales Bull (1806-1895) planted seeds of a wild vine of the species Vitis labrusca near Concord in the state of Massachusetts, selected a red variety and named it after the place. This is still widely used today, especially in the north-east.

In 1798, the immigrant Swiss vintner Jean Jacques Dufour (1763-1827) planted a vineyard in Jessamine County in Kentucky and planted the historic Alexander variety, among others. This vineyard is considered to be the first commercially operated vineyard in America. He later went to Indiana and also founded a vineyard on the Ohio River - he is also one of the most important US winegrowing pioneers thanks to a wine book he wrote. Land surveyor John Adlum (1759-1836) achieved a major success when he planted a variety originating from North Carolina on a large scale in Georgetown (Washington District, DC) in 1820. He named it Catawba after a river in North Carolina. In 1823, he sent a bottle of wine to Thomas Jefferson, who compared it to a French Chambertin.

The second birthplace of commercial American viticulture is Cincinnati in the state of Ohio, where the lawyer Nicholas Longworth (1783-1863) tried unsuccessfully to plant European vines on the Ohio River in 1823, initially for the reasons mentioned above. He then received Catawba cuttings from Adlum in 1825 and used them to produce the first US sparkling wine "Sparkling Catawba". The success was also due to the fact that the foxy does not come across so strongly in a sparkling wine. At the time, the Ohio was known as the "Rhine of America" and the sparkling wine quickly became famous and Longworth rich. But the American Civil War (1861-1865), vine diseases and Longworth's death put an end to these initial successes. However, an important foundation stone for American viticulture had been laid.

California wine miracle

However, the American wine miracle on a large scale only began in California. In 1769, the Franciscan monk Junipero Serra (1713-1784) planted the first vineyard with the European grape variety Mission (Listán Prieto) when he founded the mission "San Diego" - it was the first successful Vitis vinifera in America. The Frenchman Jean-Louis Vignes (1780-1862), who imported European grape varieties from 1833, is considered the first commercial Californian winegrower. The Austro-Hungarian Agoston Haraszthy (1812-1869) then gave a decisive impetus to California's supremacy in the 1860s by importing tens of thousands of European cuttings. However, Prohibition (1920-1933) led to a total decline in wine culture. Many businesses went under, many vineyards were cleared and the infrastructure and knowledge were largely lost. America only recovered from this after a generation.

From 1939, winegrowing pioneer Philip Wagner (1904-1996) initiated a new direction in American viticulture from his Boordy Vineyards estate in Maryland. He imported large numbers of French hybrids and rootstocks from the Baco, Seibel and Seyve-Villard nurseries, which subsequently spread throughout the East Coast of the United States. In the middle of the 20th century, American viticulture developed anew from California. The outcome of the legendary Paris Wine Tasting in 1976 is often cited as a milestone and turning point in the reputation of American viticulture. This was a "wine country battle" between France and California.

Wine production

Today, wine is produced in all 50 US states, even in Alaska (where there are no vineyards) and Hawaii. The last state to follow in 2002 was North Dakota with two vineyards. However, the extent varies greatly, there is generally more viticulture in the west than in the east and more in the north than in the south. Wine is considered more of a luxury than an everyday product in the USA. As an after-effect of Prohibition, wine is still regarded as a drug in many US states. After Prohibition, the three-tier system was introduced. This stipulates that producers, wholesalers and retailers must be completely separate. In 1983, the then responsible authority BATF (now TTB) declared the AVA (American Viticultural Area) appellation system to be generally valid. There are 258 recognised AVAs in 34 states, several of which are shared by two or more states. Of these, over 50% (142) are in California (as of 2021).

The wine production volume is 23.1 million hectolitres. There are over 10,200 wineries, whereby this term refers to different types of wineries. These are wineries that produce their own wines, wineries that produce wine for other companies and so-called virtual wineries (companies that market wine under their own brand but do not produce the wine themselves but have it produced by other companies). The five most successful US wine brands and producers are labelled with the acronym GAMIT. Many states also produce large quantities of fruit wine (apples, berries, etc.), table grapes, grape juice and grape jelly (jam).

Grape variety index

In 2022, the vineyards covered 390,000 hectares of vines and the wine production volume was 22.5 million hectolitres. California has by far the largest share with around 195,000 hectares. The top 50 grape varieties (Kym Anderson):

Grape variety Colour Synonyms or name in the USA hectares
Chardonnay white - 41.392
Cabernet Sauvignon red - 40.837
Pinot Noir red - 22.998
Merlot red - 21.251
Tribidrag red Zinfandel 18.551
Syrah red - 9.083
Concord red - 8.349
Colombard white French Colombard 7.991
Pinot Gris white - 7.462
Sauvignon Blanc white - 6.747
Riesling white - 4.952
Rubired red - 4.825
Durif red Petite Sirah, Petite Syrah 3.698
Garnacha Tinta red Grenache Noir 2.213
Cabernet Franc red - 2.199
Barbera red - 2.131
Ruby Cabernet red - 2.114
Muscat d'Alexandrie white Muscat of Alexandria 1.987
Chenin Blanc white - 1.969
Cot red Côt, Malbec 1.610
Viognier white - 1.481
Petit Verdot red - 1.219
Muscat Blanc / Muscat white - 1.218
Niagara White White Concord White Concord 1.196
Mazuelo red Carignane 1.086
Gewürztraminer / Traminer white Gewurztraminer 897
Sangiovese red - 827
Symphony white - 647
Tempranillo red - 626
Catawba red - 625
Monastrell red Mataro 515
Malvasia Bianca di Candia white Malvasia Bianca 486
Triplett Blanc white - 412
Elbling white - 396
Alicante Henri Bouschet red - 380
Vidal Blanc white Vidal 366
Sémillon white - 340
Chambourcin red - 315
Pinot Blanc white - 263
Aurore white - 255
Norton red - 250
Tannat red - 247
Vignoles white - 241
Traminette 240
Elvira white - 231
Cayuga White white - 214
Seyval Blanc white - 207
Listán Prieto red - 200
Roussanne white - 156
Muscat Fleur d'Oranger white Orange Muscat 152

Winemaking personalities

In addition to the viticultural pioneers mentioned above, influential personalities include the wine writers and critics Eric Asimov, Antonio Galloni, Steve Heimoff, James Laube, Peter Liem, Robert M. Parker, Frank J. Prial, David Schildknecht, Frank Schoonmaker, Mark Squires, James Suckling, Stephen Tanzer and Gary Vaynerchuk. They write for wine magazines and guides such as International Wine Review, Wine Advocate, Wine Enthusiast, Wine Spectator and Wine & Spirits.

Map: © Goruma
Flag: Public domain, Link
Coat of arms: Public domain, Link
Source 1st paragraph: WIKIPEDIA United States

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The world's largest Lexicon of wine terms.

26,367 Keywords · 46,924 Synonyms · 5,323 Translations · 31,701 Pronunciations · 201,867 Cross-references
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