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The United States of America is the world’s fourth largest producer of wine, and claims the world’s fifth highest acreage of land under vine.
California produces approximately 90% of all American wine, followed by Washington, New York and Oregon. Due to a large population in comparison with traditional wine-producing countries, the US surpassed France in early 2011 to become the world’s largest wine consumer, yet in 2006 the country only ranked 38th in per capita consumption, as only 30% of the populace identifies themselves as wine-drinkers. In 2008 consumption surpassed 270 million cases, amounting to nearly three gallons a person. Unlike Europe, where wine consumption is generally decreasing with newer generations, younger Americans are driving the increase. Although Asian markets are rapidly developing, the US continues to provide the world’s most substantial market for fine wines, and, over the past 20 years, powerful American critics have become a cause célèbre, wielding influence on winemakers and markets worldwide.
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In the early 9th century, the Viking Leiv Eriksson brought his boat aground at L’Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada, as the first European to definitively set foot upon the North American continent. He christened his discovery “Vinland”—a possible reference to the meadows before him, or, as recounted in the 13th century Saga of the Greenlanders, a tribute to the wealth of native grapevines. Unlike South America, several species of wild grapevine awaited the first colonists of North America, including