3 Unknown Great Wine States

In the United States, most people think that the wine industry includes California, Oregon and the state of Washington. Sure, New Yorkers always think they make incredible wine, but good luck finding an award winning New York wine for sale anywhere outside of New York state.  In any case, there are at least three other states making incredible wines which are just begging to be discovered.

Arizona:

At some point it was probably bound to happen given the huge number of Arizona tourists pouring into Southern California during the warm Summer months and the equally huge number of California residents cashing in the now insecure equity in their homes, for a cheaper cost of living in Arizona, but no matter what the reason, Arizona wine is starting to arrive. They learned from New Mexico that great wine can be made at extreme temperatures, if you can grow the grapes at sufficiently high elevations to give them a cooler night time temperature.  The vintners in Arizona are also smart enough not to try and compete directly with California for business, instead they are focusing on lesser known varietal plantings like grapes with Italian and Spanish ancestries. The results of late are nothing less than remarkable.

Texas:

If I know anything about Texas (and I have family there, so I know the state fairly well) it is that Texans love to support other Texans.  That natural affinity works for the forty or so active wineries in the hill country around Austin because these wineries have a ready made market for their products.  The wineries in hill country are also being incredibly adept at investing in their businesses with these initial profits.  No other region I’ve ever seen has taken such huge, dramatic steps forward in quality in such a short period of time.  Texas has positioned itself to challenge New York as the 4th most important wine producing state in the country within the next decade.  That’s even before they know exactly what grapes grow best in the region, once they figure that out exactly, watch out!

Michigan:

We don’t typically think of cold weather states as great places to grow grapes, but the most expensive wine made in North America today is actually Canadian ice wine.  Michigan is following the example of our neighbors to the great white north and making nice ice wine’s as well as focusing on higher acidity white wine choices.  Those white wine choices, much in the German Riesling model might see the wine market catch up at some point soon.  You see as Millennials become bigger and bigger wine purchasers, sweet wine stands to gain market share in the United States.  If you grew up drinking soda, a sweet wine makes more sense than a dark, dense and brooding Napa wine don’t you think?

I hope you have enjoyed this short look into what will be next in the world of wine.  While more than 30 states actively grow grapes as of today, only a small handful successfully sell their wines outside of their own local geographic area. If you want to learn more about different types of wine, visit makeadish.net/.

Featured images:

•  License: Creative Commons image source
•  License: Creative Commons image source
•  License: Creative Commons image source

Mark Aselstine is an owner of Uncorked Ventures, a high-end wine business. Mark loves to travel and explore new and exciting wine regions.

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