Wine for The Ages

My husband and I love to discuss world politics and how the United States fits in to things.  We pore over surveys and studies that show how Americans rate in terms of education, gross domestic product and per capital consumption of meat.  We analyze and theorize as to why Germany and France have the highest unemployment rates in Western Europe and why Ireland has one of the best economies in the world.

All this pondering recently led me to wonder where Americans are now in their consumption of wine.  How much do they drink and what do they drink.  Who is drinking wine and what do they think of wine.  It’s true that other countries have been making and drinking wine a lot longer than the U.S.  And, the last time I checked (about 10 years ago), we were consuming a lot less than most European countries, though certainly a lot more than most Asian countries.  But I wondered what the American wine consumer is doing today.

A little history is in order.