Arkansas wine
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Arkansas wine refers to
wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...
made from
grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus '' Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years a ...
s grown in the
U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
state of
Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the O ...
. Many of these wines are grown from traditional European wine grapes of the ''
Vitis vinifera ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, is a species of flowering plant, native to the Mediterranean region, Central Europe, and southwestern Asia, from Morocco and Portugal north to southern Germany and east to northern Iran. There are curr ...
'' group such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Pinot noir, and
Riesling Riesling (, ; ) is a white grape variety that originated in the Rhine region. Riesling is an aromatic grape variety displaying flowery, almost perfumed, aromas as well as high acidity. It is used to make dry, semi-sweet, sweet, and sparkling wh ...
but Arkansas also makes wine from its native grapes, the Cynthiana and
Muscadine ''Vitis rotundifolia'', or muscadine, is a grapevine species native to the southeastern and south-central United States. The growth range extends from Florida to New Jersey coast, and west to eastern Texas and Oklahoma. It has been extensive ...
.


History

Winemaking in Arkansas dates back to the first
French Catholic , native_name_lang = fr , image = 060806-France-Paris-Notre Dame.jpg , imagewidth = 200px , alt = , caption = Cathedral Notre-Dame de Paris , abbreviation = , type ...
settlers, and commercial winemaking started in the 1870s with
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
and Swiss settlers who came to
Altus, Arkansas Altus is a city in Franklin County, Arkansas, United States. Located within the Arkansas River Valley at the edge of the Ozark Mountains, the city is within the Fort Smith metropolitan area. The epicenter of the Altus American Viticultural Area (A ...
and found the climate favorable to growing grapes. One of these settlers was Jacob Post, who emigrated to the area in 1872 and his descendants are sixth generation winemakers. The four oldest running wineries in the state (Wiederkehr, Post, Mount Bethel and Cowie) are all located in Altus. At one point Arkansas had 160 wineries and produced more wine and grapes than any other state. Prohibition in the United States reduced the wineries to only a few that remain today, and about half of Arkansas's counties remain dry.


Arkansas winemaking today

There are at least fourteen wineries listed in Arkansas, and the state has three designated American Viticultural Areas. The
University of Arkansas The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and the largest university in the state. Founded as Arkansas ...
has worked with the Post family for nearly a century to develop new grapes and harvesting technology. John Clark, a
horticulture Horticulture is the branch of agriculture that deals with the art, science, technology, and business of plant cultivation. It includes the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and no ...
professor at the University of Arkansas, has worked for 20 years on grapes that can withstand Arkansas' natural problems, such as high
humidity Humidity is the concentration of water vapor present in the air. Water vapor, the gaseous state of water, is generally invisible to the human eye. Humidity indicates the likelihood for precipitation, dew, or fog to be present. Humidity dep ...
.


See also

*
American wine Wine has been produced in the United States since the 1500s, with the first widespread production beginning in New Mexico in 1628. Today, wine production is undertaken in all fifty states, with California producing 84 percent of all US wine. The N ...


References

Wine regions of the United States by state {{wine-region-stub