Wines of North America
From tentative beginnings when vine cultivation across North America, was plagued by pests, unreliable climatic extremes and grape varieties that refused to flourish, the country's wine industry has finally emerged, triumphant.
Early attempts to grow European grape varieties and to create hybrid varieties from indigenous North American grapes were often doomed, with the notable exception of the Alexander grape, an American hybrid, discovered in Pennsylvania.
Despite early attempts to cultivate the vine, in New York State, Virginia and New Jersey, the first commercially viable North American wine, Nicolas Longworth's Sparkling Catawba, was actually produced in Cincinnati, Ohio.
By the time of the Civil War, wine production was fairly well established, with many new grape varieties taking hold that were better adapted to the vagaries and extremes of North American climate and terroir.
By, the mid nineteenth century, however, Northern California was fast becoming the leading wine growing region of North America. But all was far from plain sailing; the dreaded phylloxera saw to that. The country's wine industry then took an even bigger nosedive, this time as a result of the total Prohibition of alcohol, across the United States, between the years 1918 and 1933.
Today, however, things are very different; the grape is back in favor. The US wine trade is booming, with an infrastructure of grapes and wine being shipped from successful vine terroir to less favorable wine growing regions for blending and bottling, for sale on both the home and export market.
North America's wine industry continues to go from strength to strength, from California to New York and New Jersey, from Michigan to Texas and Mexico, each region is developing its own quality wines. New generation grape varieties, such as white Seyval Blanc, Vidal and Vignoles and red Chambourcin and Baco Noir are all grapes to keep an eye on.
There is no doubt that, nowadays, the United States is one of the world's largest producers of wine, outside Europe. It is also a keen contender on the New World wine market.