Many people might answer this question with, “well it already is!” But when compared to the French and their habit of having a glass or two with lunch, it can appear as if wine and Americans are as compatible as oil and water.
It’s true though that wine consumption is surging in the United States. And in 2010, overall wine consumption surpassed France for the first time in history (remember that France has a population of only 65 million to America’s 310 million). But will it last? For a unique insight, we go back in time…to 1934 and this Fortune magazine article asking just this question: “Can wine become an American habit?”
“The statistics told Mr. Garrett more. In 1918 some 3,000,000 gallons of wine were imported to fill the slippers of chorus girls and the gullets of the rich. Most of the 51,000,000 gallons produced domestically was sold in bulk and drunk by the foreign-born people of the cities. Of the 159,000,000 gallons consumed in 1928 only a few thousand were imported and only 5,000,000 produced legally and domestically for refreshment while communing with the Lord. That left 154,000,000 gallons which were made illegally in cellars and legally in homes. Since the foreign-born population has not increased since 1918, it seems logical to conclude that much of the 100,000,000-gallon increase in those years was due to new habits contracted by the rank and file of the population. In other words, prohibition has done something very startling to the taste of this nation.”
For the full article visit: http://features.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2012/03/25/american-wine-fortune-1934/
