California wineries lead the United States’ with a modern day gold rush
turned grape rush, with 2,275 bonded wineries and 800,000 grape-planted acres. Nationwide sales of the products from wineries totaled $11.2 billion a
year. Wineries, in turn, spend $80 million a year on advertising, $40 million
on stainless steel tanks and $573 million on bottles. Another moneymaker for
the wine industry is tourism- which adds 3 billion a year to travel destination
based around wine production. California has more than 19 million wine tourists a year. Grapes have
also grown to an important economic pillar here in Amador County as well.
In 2005, the last year for which numbers are available, Amador County’s total
ag production was just over 43 million dollars and over half of that
production- 23 million dollars was from grapes, wine and associated products. Wine
grapes now lead the fruit and nut crops production levels here in the county.
Agritourism has also become an important economic benchmark as Amador County
becomes a tourism destination- an important part of that destination being our
local wine country.
Monday, 22 January 2007 00:39
Wine and Grape Industry: An Economic Force
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