Appears in
Oxford Companion to Wine

By Jancis Robinson

Published 2006

  • About

Midwestern state in the united states which has played an important part in the country’s wine history. In the 1860s, Missouri made more wine than california and new york combined. Wine production blossomed under a heavy influx of Germans in the Missouri river valley, west of St Louis, and today this area is billed to its many wine tourists as ‘the Rhineland of Missouri’.

When the ava system was initiated in the 1980s, Missouri’s Mount Pleasant rushed its application through the process, and America’s first AVA was therefore Augusta, the site of many of Missouri’s best vineyards today. It remains one of America’s top ten wine-producing states and enjoys robust support from the state government, with agricultural stations, experimental wineries and talented researchers, marketers, and consultants. Many of Missouri’s 114 wineries (such as Adam Puchta, Augusta, Crown Valley, Montelle, Mount Pleasant, St James, Amigoni, and especially Stone Hill) are remarkably successful in national wine competitions. hybrids and american vine varieties comprise a significant amount of plantings and varietal Seyval Blanc, Vidal Blanc, Chambourcin, Vignoles, and Norton have set a standard for these varieties in other states.