Drifting Towards Bordeaux? The Evolving Varietal Emphasis of U.S. Wine Regions

In an ever-more-competitive global market, vignerons compete for the attention of consumers by trying to differentiate their product while also responding to technological advances, climate changes and evolving demand patterns. In doing so, they highlight their regional and varietal distinctiveness. This paper examines the extent to which the winegrape varietal mix varies within and among states of the United States and relative to the rest of the world, and how that picture has been evolving. It reports varietal intensity indexes for different regions, indexes of similarity of varietal mix between regions and over time, and price-based quality indexes across regions and varieties within and among the three west-coast States. It also seeks econometrically to account for the shifting varietal patterns in the U.S. vineyard and in winegrape production using measures of regional varietal comparative advantage, which reflect changes in both demand and supply and producer responses to them.