The United States has confidently come of age as one of the world's leading wine-producing nations. Their reputation may be based on the world-famous Napa and Sonoma, but the U. S. is home to countless lesser-known wine regions that produce world-class wines (obvious examples are Oregon's Willamette Valley and New York's Finger Lakes).
Wine has been produced in the United States for about 400 years, but it is only in the last 40 years that American wine has really begun to gain respect on a global scale. Today, the United States is the fourth largest wine-producing nation in the world (behind France, Italy and Spain), producing about 18. 5 million hectoliters per year.
All 50 U.
S. states produce wine to some degree, although 95 percent of it comes from just four of them. California is by far the most prolific, producing five times the combined total of the next three: Washington, Oregon and New York. The 5% that comes from the other states, led by Texas and Virginia, is produced largely for local consumption rather than for domestic or international markets.
In many cases, the winter storms that have lashed California have resulted in tragedy, severe property loss, and the deaths of at least 20 people. In a state that has been in the grips of drought for 20 years, it is a complicated scenario where the much-needed rain is a welcome respite. As an illustration of the chaos that climate change has brought to California’s weather patterns, the Los Angeles Times reported on 14 December that the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California had just ...
On 11 April, 2022, cold temperatures, snow and frost arrived in the Willamette Valley. The pre-dawn hours of 15 April were particularly devastating, with numerous vineyards registering overnight lows of minus three to zero degrees Celsius. Gregory Jones, a research climatologist and CEO of Abacela Winery in Roseburg, Oregon, refers to the event as ‘February in April’ in his weather and climate newsletter. The frost’s timing was disastrous. Thanks to a warmer, drier Oregon winter, Chardonnay and ...
Plans have been approved for what will become Islay’s 12th Scotch malt whisky distillery. Laggan Bay is set to be developed by whisky bottlers and brewers The Islay Boys, in association with Ian Macleod Distillers. Argyll and Bute Council has granted planning permission for the distillery, which The Islay Boys said will produce ‘a traditional, double-distillation Islay whisky’, at Glenegedale in Laggan Bay, close to the island’s airport. The new development, on a two-hectare site, will also incl ...