Missouri wine

Missouri wine refers to wine made from grapes grown in Missouri. German immigrants in the early-to-mid-19th century founded the wine industry in Missouri, resulting in its wine corridor being called the Missouri "Rhineland". Later Italian immigrants also entered wine production. In the mid-1880s, more wine was produced by volume in Missouri than in any other state. Before prohibition, Missouri was the second-largest wine-producing state in the nation. Missouri had the first area recognized as a federally designated American Viticultural Area with the Augusta AVA acknowledged on June 20, 1980. There are now four AVAs in Missouri. In 2017 there were 125 wineries operating in the state of Missouri, up from 92 in 2009. German immigrants to the Missouri River valley established vineyards and wineries on both sides of the river. Hermann, Missouri, settled by Germans in 1837, had ideal conditions to grow grapes for wine. By 1848 winemakers there produced per year, expanding to per year by 1856. Overall, the state produced per year by the 1880s, the most of any state in the nation. Stone Hill Winery in Hermann became the second largest in the nation (and the third-largest in the world), shipping a million barrels of wine by the turn of the 20th century. Its wines won awards at world fairs in Vienna in 1873 and Philadelphia in 1876. In the mid-19th century, the phylloxera louse destroyed much of the Vitis vinifera grape crop in Europe, especially France, after a Frenchman transferred American wine grapes carrying phylloxera to France. Missouri's state entomologist, Charles Riley, found that American rootstocks were resistant to the pest. He directed selling millions of rootstocks to vineyards around the world, to which their grape varieties could be grafted. This saved the French wine industry as well as others. The city of Montpellier erected statues honoring these events, as well as Riley's scientific colleague J.É. Planchon. Before Prohibition, Missouri was the second-largest wine-producing state in the nation.