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USA
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Many wine drinkers in Australia see the USA as a producer of inexpensive major brands (see your local supermarket-owned liquor store) at one end and expensive boutique wines at the other.
Happily though, as our buyers have discovered, there is much middle ground these days where discerning drinkers can enjoy fabulous flavors and increasingly compelling value.
As recently as the 1960s winemaking was still in its infancy thanks largely to prohibition. During the last 45 years however, winemaking and consumption have increased dramatically. The average American now consumes 11 bottles of wine a year - a fourfold increase.
A huge boost to the US wine industry came with the infamous tasting in 1976 known as the 'Judgement of Paris' - dramatised in the film 'Bottle Shock.' A variety of top Californian wines and top-flight French offerings were tasted blind and ranked by some of the best noses and palates in the business - the Californian wines performed magnificently. With its reputation cemented, Californian, and American wine in general, has never looked back.
After California, the next most important states for wine are Oregon and Washington in the cooler Pacific Northwest. Many critics believe this region produces some of the finest Pinot Noirs outside of Burgundy