Sparkling Wine Production in California

Abstract

Naturally fermented sparkling wines have been produced in Europe since the early eighteenth century. The first commercial production in California was in the late 1850s. The growth of the California sparkling wine industry was slow and cyclic. As late as 1960, only 1,984,000 gallons of sparkling wine were produced in California. By 1965, the volume had increased to 10,202,000 gallons. In 1979, California shipped to U.S. markets 19,100,000 gallons; this quantity was about 70 percent of all sparkling wine consumed in the United States that year; 17 percent was imported and 13 percent produced in other states. In 1979, there were thirty wineries in California producing sparkling wine. The annual sales of sparkling wine from these wineries ranges from less than 2000 to over 4,000,000 cases per year. A few of the wineries make only sparkling wine but most produce still wines as well. Definitions In the United States, there