Wine Tourism, New World Wines, U.S.

With wine production in all 50 states, the United States is a prominent member of the New World of wine. The retail value of the U.S. wine industry is estimated at $36 billion, thanks to nearly 7,000 bonded wineries. The top three companies (E&J Gallo, The Wine Group, and Constellation Wines) account for more than half of wine sales in the United States. The U.S. wine industry has experienced steady growth since the mid-1990s with no sign of slowing down any time soon.

In addition to benefiting from increased wine consumption and sales, the U.S. wine industry has also reaped the benefit of an increased interest in agritourism. Wine tourism is a subset of agritourism, which is broadly defined as visiting a working agribusiness operation for ...