States Where Residents Love Their Wine the Most
Ask sommeliers where wine was invented, and you’ll likely receive several different answers with Asian origins. Regardless of who invented wine, there’s no shortage of Americans who are grateful for it.
According to a Gallup poll, 29% of Americans favor wine over any other alcoholic beverage. If that sounds like a low number, you probably hang out with a lot of females; women are approximately three times as likely as men to claim wine as the alcoholic beverage they drink the most.
Zippia ran a study to determine the states with the biggest wine drinkers in America. Within those rankings, they calculated the gallons of wine consumed annually per person in each state. Mindfully American honed in on that data, creating this list of states with the biggest wine drinkers.
Wine by the Gallon
Determining how much wine residents of each state consume is no easy task, and there’s room for error. However, Zippia estimated wine consumption by state using data from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).
The NIAAA publishes data on its website about the number of gallons of wine Americans in each state drink on average. Zippia converted gallons to wine bottles, using the calculation that one gallon equals approximately five bottles of wine.
Zippia then accounted for the number of wine bottles consumed per capita, leveling the playing field as much as possible between states with larger and smaller populations. That said, children and non-drinkers are included in the per capita numbers. So, the data is a rough estimate, though fun nonetheless if you ask us.
With this caveat cleared up, these are the states with the most and least wine drinkers, starting with where residents appear to love their wine the most.
37 Wine Bottles
State consuming 37 bottles of wine per capita:
- Idaho
28 Wine Bottles
State consuming 28 bottles of wine per capita:
- New Hampshire
26 Wine Bottles
State consuming 26 bottles of wine per capita:
- Vermont
23 Wine Bottles
State consuming 23 bottles of wine per capita:
- Delaware
21 Wine Bottles
State consuming 21 bottles of wine per capita:
- Massachusetts
19 Wine Bottles
States consuming 19 bottles of wine per capita:
- Connecticut
- California
- Nevada
18 Wine Bottles
States consuming 18 bottles of wine per capita:
- Rhode Island
- Oregon
- New Jersey
- Hawaii
17 Wine Bottles
State consuming 17 bottles of wine per capita:
- Florida
16 Wine Bottles
States consuming 16 bottles of wine per capita:
- New York
- Washington
- Alaska
- Colorado
- Montana
15 Wine Bottles
State consuming 15 bottles of wine per capita:
- Virginia
14 Wine Bottles
States consuming 14 bottles of wine per capita:
- Maine
- Illinois
- Minnesota
- North Carolina
13 Wine Bottles
State consuming 13 bottles of wine per capita:
- Michigan
12 Wine Bottles
States consuming 12 bottles of wine per capita:
- Maryland
- Wisconsin
- Missouri
- Arizona
10 Wine Bottles
States consuming 10 bottles of wine per capita:
- Pennsylvania
- New Mexico
- Louisiana
- Tennessee
- Texas
- North Dakota
- Wyoming
9 Wine Bottles
States consuming nine bottles of wine per capita:
- Ohio
- Indiana
8 Wine Bottles
States consuming eight bottles of wine per capita:
- South Carolina
- Alabama
7 Wine Bottles
States consuming seven bottles of wine per capita:
- Georgia
- Iowa
- South Dakota
- Arkansas
6 Wine Bottles
States consuming six bottles of wine per capita:
- Utah
- Nebraska
- Kentucky
- Oklahoma
5 Wine Bottles
State consuming five bottles of wine per capita:
- Mississippi
4 Wine Bottles
State consuming four bottles of wine per capita:
- Kansas
3 Wine Bottles
State consuming three bottles of wine per capita:
- West Virginia
Where Beer Reigns
Americans clearly love their wine. But what alcoholic beverage do they love even more? Beer.
Thirty-seven percent of Americans report drinking beer most often, compared to 31% drinking liquor and 29% drinking wine. That said, one’s age, gender, and education play a role in how likely one is to drink beer. According to Gallup, younger generations prefer drinking beer over wine, as do people without a college degree.
Furthermore, lower and middle-income Americans are more likely to say beer is their preferred drink. In contrast, people with a higher income have a more even division in their drinking preferences.
Wine Consumers by Country
According to Statista’s data from 2021, the United States doesn’t come anywhere near the top countries for wine consumption. The top thirteen countries all reside in Europe, with Portugal being the biggest wine consumer.
So, just how much wine do the Portuguese drink? Just over 51 liters, which comes out to approximately 13.5 gallons. Based on Zippia’s calculations, 13.5 gallons is approximately 67.5 wine bottles. That’s almost double the amount of wine that Idahoans drink, who are the biggest wine drinkers in the U.S., according to Zippia’s data.
France, Italy, Switzerland, and Austria rank as the second to fifth-biggest wine consumers in the world, respectively.
Fun Wine Facts
According to WineAmerica, 60 countries produce wine, including the U.S. However, a massive 85% of wine comes from only 28 countries. There’s a good reason more countries can’t jump on the wine-producing bandwagon; grapes can only grow between 30 and 50 latitude degrees. No grapes, no wine.
Countries that produce wine need a lot of land for that to happen. Approximately 600 to 800 grapes go into a single bottle of wine, which comes out to be 2.5 to 3.0 pounds of grapes.
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