For those that like numbers, Wines & Vines published an article titled, “North America Winery Total Passes 8,000.” The article introduces their new 2013 Directory & Buyers Guide; however, it is the few charts that piqued my math interest. The total of wineries in the United States, Canada and New Mexico topped the 8,000 threshold with a total of 8,046. Of these, the United States total for 2012 was 7,498. This U.S. total shows an increase of the number of wineries in the United States during the pass four years with an 1,100 increase. This is during a period when the economy is not at its best. If the trend continues, the United States will top the 8,000 threshold in a few years.

I found other data also interesting. Wineries in the United States were divided into groups based on production size. There were five groups including large, medium, small, very small and limited production. The largest group of 3,038 wineries in the United States fell in the very small category, a group with a production between 1,000 and 4,999 cases. There were only 49 U.S. wineries in the large category representing a production of over 500,000 cases. In contrast the next largest group was the limited production group with a case production of less than a 1,000. That puts 78% of wineries in the United States with a production of less than 5,000 cases.

As one might suspect, California had the largest number of wineries with 3,532. This represents 47% of the U.S. total. California use to have over 50% of the wineries in the country. The data reflects the increase of wineries in other regions. There always seems to be a struggle of who is number two through five. Based on the number of wineries, Washington is second with 670 wineries, followed by Oregon in third with 544 wineries and New York in fourth with 310 wineries. When we visit wineries in Texas, they like to claim that they are fifth, while when visiting wineries in Virginia, they like to claim that they are fifth. According to the article, Virginia is fifth in the United States with 222 wineries while Texas is sixth with 204 wineries. Rounding off the top ten states in number of wineries is Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and North Carolina.

If you like numbers and data, check out the article.

Cheers,
Terry