Hawaii 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 in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

. The island of

Maui The island of Maui (; Hawaiian: ) is the second-largest of the islands of the state of Hawaii at 727.2 square miles (1,883 km2) and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is the largest of Maui County's four islands, which ...

is where the bulk of the state's wine is produced though there is some production on the island of

. The state mainly produces

fruit wine Fruit wines are fermented alcoholic beverages made from a variety of base ingredients (other than grapes); they may also have additional flavors taken from fruits, flowers, and herbs. This definition is sometimes broadened to include any alcohol ...

such as a

pineapple The pineapple (''Ananas comosus'') is a tropical plant with an edible fruit; it is the most economically significant plant in the family Bromeliaceae. The pineapple is indigenous to South America, where it has been cultivated for many centuri ...

sparkling wine Sparkling wine is a wine with significant levels of carbon dioxide in it, making it fizzy. While the phrase commonly refers to champagne, European Union countries legally reserve that term for products exclusively produced in the Champagne regi ...

. In July 2021, the Ulupalakua AVA was designated on Maui, the first

American Viticultural Area An American Viticultural Area (AVA) is a designated wine grape-growing region in the United States, providing an official appellation for the mutual benefit of winery, wineries and consumers. Winemakers frequently want their consumers to know abo ...

in Hawaii and the only outside of the contiguous United States.

Grapes and wines

The

Symphony A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, most often for orchestra. Although the term has had many meanings from its origins in the ancient Greek era, by the late 18th century the word had taken on the meaning com ...

grape is the principal

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 ago, ...

wine made in the state and produces an

off-dry The subjective sweetness of a wine is determined by the interaction of several factors, including the amount of sugar in the wine, but also the relative levels of alcohol, acids, and tannins. Sugars and alcohol enhance a wine's sweetness, while ...

, fruity white wine.

Viticulture Viticulture (from the Latin word for ''vine'') or winegrowing (wine growing) is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, ran ...

in Hawaii is made possible by the higher

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...

of the area's

volcanic mountains A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates are ...

and ridges.

Availability within the United States

A law passed in 2001 and signed by Governor

Ben Cayetano Benjamin Jerome Cayetano (born November 14, 1939) is an American politician and author who served as the fifth governor of the State of Hawaii from 1994 to 2002. He is the first Filipino American to serve as a state governor in the United State ...

opened up the Hawaiian wine industry to more domestic trading within the mainland United States. The new law allows the state to enter into

reciprocal trade agreement A trade agreement (also known as trade pact) is a wide-ranging taxes, tariff and trade treaty that often includes investment guarantees. It exists when two or more countries agree on terms that help them trade with each other. The most common tr ...

s with other states, enabling residents of Hawaii to purchase wine directly from wineries in those states in exchange for those states allowing Hawaiian wineries to sell wine in those states without having to go through a

wholesaler Wholesaling or distributing is the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers; to industrial, commercial, institutional or other professional business users; or to other wholesalers (wholesale businesses) and related subordinated services. In g ...

in the typical three-tier distribution system.

Winery and Vineyards

Three main winery-vineyards operate in Hawaii: * MauiWine, formerly Tedeschi Vineyards (on

) *

Volcano Winery Volcano Winery is one of three commercial wineries in the U.S. state of Hawaii, and the first winery founded on the Big Island of Hawaii in the town of Volcano, Hawaii, near the summit of the active shield volcano Kīlauea. It is the southernmost w ...

(on

Hawaii Island Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii ) is the largest island in the United States, located in the state of Hawaii. It is the southeasternmost of the Hawaiian Islands, a chain of volcanic islands in the North Pacific Ocean. With an area of , it has 63% of t ...

) *

Oeno Winemaking In Greek mythology, the Oenotropae ( grc, Οἰνοτρόπαι, "the women who change (into) wine") or Oenotrophae ( grc, Οἰνοτρόφαι, the "Winegrowers") were the three daughters of Anius and Dryope.Tripp, Edward. ''The Meridian Handbo ...

(on

Oahu Oahu () (Hawaiian language, Hawaiian: ''Oʻahu'' ()), also known as "The Gathering place#Island of Oʻahu as The Gathering Place, Gathering Place", is the third-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is home to roughly one million people—over t ...

) In November 2020, the TTB received a petition from Mark Beaman, winemaker at Maui Wines, proposing the establishment of the Ulupalakua AVA. The proposed Ulupalakua AVA is located within the 18,000-acre Ulupalakua Ranch on the island of Maui and is approximately 70 acres, with about 16 acres of vineyards. The AVA was approved in July 2021.

References

{{American wine Hawaiian cuisine Wine regions of the United States by state