The state of the U.S. wine market.

For the first time since its inception almost 70 years ago, the International Office of Wines and Vines (OIV) was invited to the United States for its annual Assembly. This culminated a rather long period during which the OIV was first ignored, then observed, and finally joined by the U.S. The

OIV's 73rd General Assembly in San Francisco draws international attention to the U.S. wine industry at a time when the global industry is seeking to adjust to new market conditions. These conditions result from the interaction of the same three basic forces that shaped the North American wine industry over the past two or more centuries: consumer attitudes, technological change and government policies. By reviewing what happened here, some insights can be gained about what may happen globally.

The founder of the North American wine industry was the Spanish explorer and conqueror, Hernando Cortez, who arrived in Mexico City in 1519. As governor of New Spain (1521-1527), he ordered that grape vines brought from Spain be planted (1,000 vines per 100 families) on the colony's farms, allowing wines to be made from wild grapes before the new vines could bear fruit. By 1595 Mexico was self-sufficient in wine, and sales of Spanish wines in Mexico had dropped dramatically. This led King Philip II of Spain to prohibit the new planting or replacement of vines in Mexico to protect Spain's wine exports. In spite of the prohibition, wine making spread from Mexico to Chile, Peru and Argentina in the 16th and 17th centuries, and to what is now western United States (New Mexico) in the 17th century. The industry was initiated as the result of demand for wine, it was expanded by adopting newer technologies, and fostered--and finally decimated--by government policy.

The planting activities of Cortez and those who followed are the basis for the grape and wine industry in western America. In the 17th century the European variety, criolla, known in America as the mission variety, was introduced by Franciscan missionaries in New Mexico, along the Valley of the Rio Grande, where vineyards thrived for almost three centuries until prohibition. The first vintage in California could have been in 1773. For the next 60 years the only wines made in California, as far as historians can account, were produced by the Franciscans for religious or medical use, although a certain amount was used for the missionaries' own pleasure.