Explosive Fivefold Winery Growth Attributed to Cold Hardy Grapes

80% of the wineries in the Northern and Upper Midwestern USA registered and opened for business since the year 2000, new data shows. A team of researchers, led by Professor Bill Gartner from the University of Minnesota’s Department of Applied Economics, surveyed hundreds of wineries as part of an ongoing study by a consortium of universities for the Northern Grapes Project (NGP). The huge fivefold increase in numbers was extrapolated from more than 500 survey responses by wineries and vineyards across the region.

‘I think this growth is due directly to the introduction and widespread use of the cold hardy grapes that are now available in the market place,” said Gartner, who discussed the research during an NGP webinar last month.

‘Part of that [growth] again is due to the legislation that establishes farm wineries and tends to support these wineries as rural development agents or as tourist attractions,” said the professor.

The researchers found that Marquette is the most commonly planted cold hardy red grape in northern US sates, making up 39% of all red cultivars.

Publications detailing the research by Gartner and his team can be found on the NGP website by clicking here.