My wife and I had several guests over for dinner the other night.  We enjoyed a great meal and later we sat on our patio with a glass of our favorite after dinner wine.  My guests know of my current pastime of blogging.  They began to tease me about how I learned enough about wine and related topics to write about them.  My answer was simple “I conduct extensive research on the web to gather information for my articles and Blog posts.”   One of my guests said, “If you know so much, who is the biggest producer of wine in the United States?”.  I said, “I do not know, but you have given me an idea for my next article”.  After everyone left, I immediately went to research an answer to the question. 

American Wine Production

Wine production in the United States has been going on for well over 400 years.  Every state in the union has some wine production actively occurring.  The states of California and Washington are the undisputed leaders in American wine production.  California can brag that 90 percent of all wine consumed in the country is produced in that state.  As it turns out, the U.S. is the fourth leading wine producer in the world with France, Italy and Spain taking the top three ranking spots.

I reviewed several sources to discover who the top U.S. wine producers are.  All the sources I found had the same top four listed, but there were some differences in the “Top Ten” list after that.  Near as I could tell, the lists represented data compiled during different years, which may be the primary factor that caused the lists to vary.  Based on 2004 information, the top producer of wine in the country produces 300 percent more that the second producer on the list.  The next two top producers produce over 200 percent more than the fifth highest wine producer does.

Largest U.S. Wine Producer  

The largest producer of wine in the U.S. is E. & J. Gallo. In 2010, this privately owned wine company is celebrating its 77^th birthday.  This company has annual revenues of $1.7 billion, employs around 5000 people, has an annual American sales volume of 66 million cases and sells wine in more than 90 countries.  The company founded by the Gallo brothers still has many second and third generation family members with roles in the business (source: Wine Business Monthly, Review of the Industry: The Top 30 U.S. Wine Company Profiles, February 15, 2008). 

Second Place Wine Producer

Constellation Brands is the second leading producer of wine in the U.S.  Annual American sales volume is 59 million cases with another 53 million cases sold on the world market outside the U.S.  The strength of Constellation Brands is its widely diversified portfolio of wineries and brands.  In the United States, Constellation Brands employs about 3,200 people of which 500 previously worked for Beam Wine Estates of Jim Beam Whiskey fame.  This company is the leading seller of wine in Canada and lays claim to be the biggest producer of “premium wines” in the U.S. 

The Rest of the Top Five Wine Producers

The number three producer, The Wine Group is a San Francisco based company that has an annual sales volume of 44 million cases.  It once was a part of The Coca-Cola Company.  Bronco Wine Company is the number four wine producer with a U.S. sales volume of 20 million cases.  Foster’s Wine Estates with a U.S. sales volume of 20 million cases holds the fifth position. 

While it is interesting to understand who the top wine producers are, there are great numbers of lesser companies that produce great wines.  It still boils down in the end to what wine suits your palette.  As I always say, buy the wine you like, store it properly in a wine cooler, serve it at the proper temperature and enjoy it immensely. 

Author: Ronald Senn, Vice-president, Ideal Wine Coolers, July 2010

The Wine Consumer Issue revolves around three primary axes.  One axis is the ever-increasing demand by the consumer as wine popularity soars.  Another angle to the wine consumer issue is the wholesalers, the traditional intermediaries, seek to protect their state-sanctioned monopolies, in other words, they want their share of the “American Money Pie”.  The last issue axis revolves around the old-fashion laws regarding shipment of wine across state lines.  All of these issue components serve to restrict your ability to buy and ship your favorite wine no matter where you get it.

An ever-increasing favorite beverage of many people is wine and demand for wine is increasing rapidly.  With over one-thousand different wine varieties, the choices seem nearly infinite.  Wine tasting parties are very popular and great events to get to know other people.  In the past thirty years, the number of wineries increased by several hundred percent.  There is now at least one winery in every state, but distributors in all fifty states represent less than twenty percent of these wineries.  The issue is consumers do not have the freedom everywhere to obtain wine from their favorite vintners.

The traditional American business model starts with a producer that leads to a wholesaler that leads to the consumer.  The wholesalers in this equation are naturally fighting your ability to purchase and ship directly from the producer of your choice, strictly a matter of money.  In last 30 years as wine popularity and demand has increased the number of wine wholesalers has drastically diminished.  The wines currently marketed are generally limited to two or three distributors in each state with a great deal of interest in keeping direct wine shipping laws in place.

Did you know that only thirty-five states now allow the retail shipment of wine to adult consumers across their respective borders?  In those states, the shipping restrictions range from limited to very restrictive.  Fifteen states continue their ban on any form of cross border shipping of wine.  Some of these states even classify that act as a felony.  Imagine; obtaining the wine you want from where you want could have you facing criminal charges.

This wine consumer dilemma became apparent to me after visiting the website of a great organization: Free The Grapes.  This organization was established in 1998 to address directly the wine consumer issue that is summarized above from their website.  By visiting their website, you can get more specific information regarding the wine consumer controls associated within the state you live.  Their web site can be found at http://www.freethegrapes.org/index.html.

Maybe it is time we wine lovers got involved with this issue so our enjoyment of wine can continue unabated.  Of course, that is my opinion; you should develop an opinion of your own with regard to this issue.

More information websites dedicated to wine and wine issues can be found in the “Links” Section at http://idealwinecoolers.com/page/favorite_links.html.

Author: Ronald Senn, VP Ideal Wine Coolers, November 2009