Number of Bonded, Non-Bonded and Total U.S. Wineries. (Click here for larger view as a PDF.)

As of November 2008, the number of wineries in the United States has increased to 6,101 according to the Wine Business Monthly proprietary database. This is 90 wineries higher (an approximate 2 percent increase) than the 2007 winery total of 6,011.

This total includes 5,073 bonded wineries and 1,028 virtual wineries. Bonded winery information is sourced through a number of proprietary methods including the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax & Trade Bureau (TTB) records.  A virtual winery is a winery that has a physical location (which may be at another winery), produces at least one brand and has its own management and winemaker. This analysis does not include meaderies, sake houses or other fruit wineries.

Wineries in all 50 States

The WBM database shows that wineries exist in all 50 states.

The states with the most wineries are: California with 3,005 total wineries (2,219 bonded, 786 virtual), Washington with 539 (511 bonded, 28 virtual), Oregon with 398 (321 bonded, 77 virtual) and New York with 246 (232 bonded, 14 virtual). Five other states are in the triple-digits this year: Texas (160), Virginia (152), Pennsylvania (136), Ohio (109) and Michigan (106).

California represents 49 percent of the total wineries in the U.S.--a consistent percentage over the past three years. California is also the state with the largest increase in wineries since last year's count with 54 more than last year's number. Other states with a substantial increase in wineries are: Washington with 20 additional wineries, Wisconsin with 11 additional wineries and Maryland with nine additional wineries. These numbers include the net count of both virtual and bonded wineries.

U.S. Bonded Winery Totals (Click here for larger view as a PDF.)

Bonded Wineries

Not surprisingly, the majority of this year's increase in bonded wineries occurred in California (121 more bonded wineries this year for a total of 2,219). California accounts for 44 percent of the country's total bonded wineries. The state accounted for 46 percent of the bonded wineries in 2005, 43 percent in 2006 and 43 percent again in 2007. The next closest states are Washington (511 bonded wineries), which accounts for 10 percent of the total wineries and Oregon (321 wineries), which accounts for 6 percent.

Arizona experienced remarkably fast growth this year, with eight additional wineries since 2007 (a total of 37). This may be due to the state's proximity to California and the growth of Arizona's economy.

In general there is a net increase in the number of bonded wineries in 2008 although there have been a few reduced tallies in some states. The slight drop could be due to a number of reasons, such as a winery becoming legally bonded but never opening for business, or even acquiring all the necessary licenses and permits but never actually producing wine. Other reasons are retirement, leaving for other endeavors or movement within the industry.

Virtual Wineries

As of November 2008, there were 1,028 virtual wineries in the U.S., 133 fewer than in 2007. This decline is likely due to migration within the industry,
transitioning from a virtual winery to a bonded one (and thus increasing the bonded winery count). It is not unusual for a bonded winery to have begun operations as a virtual winery and then grown large enough to invest in its own bonded facilities.

California has the most virtual wineries with 786, followed by Oregon with 77 and Washington with 28. The remaining states have no more than 10 each, with the exception of New York, which has 14.

Because they don't hold their own bonds, virtual wineries are harder to track. WBM finds virtual wineries through detailed research methods, such as cross-referencing databases, checking association memberships and other proprietary methods. Listings and virtual wineries found to be inactive have been stricken from the WBM database, likely contributing to lower final counts.

Canadian Wineries

In addition to U.S. wineries, WBM tracks wineries in Canada. WBM found that there were 356 grape wineries in Canada as of November 2008, an additional 59 wineries since 2007. Only grape wineries have been included although there are dozens of other non-grape wineries in Canada. Pending licenses are not included in this count.

Number of Canadian Wineries (Click here for larger view as a PDF.)

Unlike the U.S. list, the Canadian wineries are not broken into bonded and virtual categories. This is because of differing licensing regulations between the two countries. In Canada all licensing is done at the provincial level whereas in the U.S. it's done at the federal and state levels.

British Columbia had the most wineries in 2008 with 182 wineries. Ontario had 108, and Quebec had 52. These three provinces have the most wineries in Canada by a large margin as each of the five remaining wine-producing provinces has significantly fewer. wbm

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METHODOLOGY

WBM analyzes federal permit holder data from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax & Trade Bureau (TTB), while also researching non-bonded wineries through proprietary methods. The WBM data collection methods and research eliminates bonded non-grape wineries, such as meaderies, sake producers, breweries or other fruit wineries from the total wineries tally (or count). They are not considered in the final analysis. Bonded winery information is sourced from the TTB.

The WBM count includes virtual wineries, which is a winery that has a physical location (which may be at another winery), produces at least one brand, and has its own management and winemaker, although the winemaker may be a consultant or work for multiple wineries.