US Wine †California Region Essay Example for Free

US Wine – California Region Essay Having studied the wine industry in general in the USA, in order to arrive at a concise answer the problem of purchase of imported bottles by the wineries in the Californian region, it is important to have an overview of the wine industry in California. Some of the important features of the California wine industry are: California wine accounts for almost 90 percent of the wine production in the United States. California ranks fourth in the total world production of wine next to France, Italy and Spain. The topography, climatic conditions and the soil of the Californian region greatly facilitates the growing of grapes and production of quality wine. These are the major factors for the concentration of the wineries in and around the state. The sales of the California wine is showing an increasing trend every year and account for nearly two thirds of all wine sales in the country. The most important point to note from the point of view of the buying of the imported bottles is that California’s wineries are predominantly family owned and multi-generational which makes the changes in the buying decisions almost impossible. The profile of the California wine industry as illustrated by the MKF Research LLC is appended below to give the readers an in-sight into the magnitude of the California wine industry. The figures are based on the statistics for the year 2005. The following table illustrates the contribution of California to the total Wine shipments in the US: The development of glass bottles with uniformly-sized necks and the accompanying cork stopper are the two important prerequisites of the international wine trade. Simi Newsletter observes â€Å"During the 18th century, bottle shapes evolved more nearly into those we recognize today as being distinctively wine bottles. Made from black glass they became taller and more cylindrical, and most assumed the form of todays Burgundy bottle†. During the course of the 19th century, the development of particular shapes of wine bottles evolved, to indicate the regions from which the wine came. Examples of such identification are Bordeaux and Champagne. Simi Newsletter adds further that â€Å"Today, most of the great viticultural regions of the world have their own distinctive bottle shape†. The function of a wine bottle is to represent its contents by the mere shape of the bottle. Thus the traditional wine bottles from France have taken to be the models that define the variety of the wine inside the bottles, irrespective of the regions of the world the wine is coming from. The most common shapes of bottles are: The Bordeaux Bottle: The shape of the bottle is such that the shoulder of the bottle helps filtering the sediment particles which used to present in the old Bordeaux wine. Even though the sediment problem is not there now the shape of the bottle continues. All red Bordeaux wines have green glasses and the white ones are filled in clear glasses, of course with some exceptions. The California wine industry also follows the same tradition. However due to the rugged nature of the winery owners, this tradition is not being followed very strictly. The Burgundy Bottle: The Burgundy bottle looks elegant with its shoulder sloping. Wine varieties Pinot Noir in green colored bottles and Chardonnay in green or clear colored ones are filled in this kind. In California â€Å"Chenin Blanc and Rhone varietals are also usually bottled in this shape† Simi Newsletter. The Champagne Bottle: These bottles are usually large thick walled and tall necked and are equipped to store the sparkling wine under high gas pressure. A recess or indentation is usually found in these bottles to relive the excessive gas pressure. In the case of bottles for still wines originally the punt was the result of the ancient method of molding the glass. But tradition continues and the punt remains in almost all fine wine bottles. The Dessert Wine Bottle: Simi Newsletter further states that â€Å"Many dessert wines made in California are bottled in long-necked bottles that resemble the bottles of Alsace and the Mosel and Rhine wines of Germany† The color of the bottle plays a very important role in making the differences between the wine varieties clear. It may be observed that all the Rhine wines are placed in Brown colored bottles. The Mosels are found in green bottles, But California follows green, brown or clear. It is contradictory that some wines have clear bottles, as the coloring of the wine bottle has the purpose of protecting the ultraviolet light preventing the aging of the wine. But the bottling of wines is purely a matter of traditional values. However some regions have developed their own shapes and colors of the bottles which have become the regional standards and specialty.