REGIONAL ARCHIVE

Home : Regional Archive : United States of America : California

California

Introduction
Landscape and climate
Vines and wines
Wine laws
Viticulture
Vinification

Articles on Gallo of Sonoma

Choose Region:   Select Option Carneros Central Valley Mendocino & Lake County Monterey County Napa Valley North Central Coast San Francisco Bay Sierra Foothills Sonoma County South Central Coast Southern California

Choose winery:   Select Option Ancien Winery Arrowood Atlas Peak Bargetto Belvedere Blackstone Vineyard CK Vineyards Canyon Road Cartlidge & Browne Christian Moueix Curtis Winery Echelon Vineyards Folie a Deux Forest Glen Frey Geyser Peak Glass Mountain Grand Cru Hacienda Indian Springs J & J Winery Jekel Karly Wines Kempton Clark Kendall Jackson L. A. Cetto La Famiglia di Robert Mondavi Marietta Cellars Mark West Mount Eden Vineyards Mountainview Peirano Estate Pepperwood Grove Rutherford Vintners Thorny Bay Woodbridge

Introduction

The Golden State is a land of myths, movies and trends with worldwide influence. The state's vinous impact looms large, despite the checkered history of the wine industry over the past 100 years. The University of California (UC) at Davis has influenced several generations of winemakers from around the world. California was at the forefront of modern, hygienic winery practices that revolutionized warm climate wine production. California has been a trendsetter, for good or for bad, in the development of the clean, fruity and overtly oaked style of wine now produced in many parts of the world. Californian wine continues to be the model by which the world's largest economy sets its palate.

The journey from the Californian mission vineyards of the eighteenth century to the present day of heady prices and record profits has been difficult. Cycles of boom and bust have been created by markets, disease, politics, war, folly, insight and forward thinking. Prohibition from 1919-33 had effects upon the American wine industry which linger to this day. A modern wine industry arose during the 1950s and 1960s and grew in fits and starts, only to be hit with phylloxera biotype B during the 1990s. Resilient as ever, Californians view this as an expensive lesson and opportunity to improve upon the past's viticultural mistakes. Replanting and record profits have softened the phylloxera blow.

More than 427,000 acres (172,800 ha) of wine grapes are planted in California. California is the fourth largest wine producer in the world after France, Italy and Spain. Californian wine accounts for 91 percent of production and 72 percent of wine sales in the USA. Ninety-eight percent of USA wine exports hale from California and these have increased five-fold in value and three-fold in volume since 1990. Wine is big business--retail sales for 1998 totaled US$12.3 billion. It represents the number one finished agricultural product in the leading agricultural state.

In 1998, 194,824 acres (78,844 ha) of white and 232,459 acres (94,075 ha) of red wine grapes were planted in California. Chardonnay was by far the leading white variety over colombard and chenin blanc. Cabernet sauvignon was the leading red, slightly ahead of zinfandel.

From "Encyclopedia of Wine"
©Global Book Publishing Pty Limited 2000