The other day we looked at a heatmap that ranked America’s 9000+ wineries. If you missed it, check it out — and don’t forget to scroll below the map to see our favorite wines from the ten states with the most wineries in the nation. While it was no surprise that California has the most wineries by far, when you adjust for population things do get a bit more interesting. The three states most of us would likely name as home to the largest number of wineries — California, Washington & Oregon — nab the top 3 spots on both lists. Here’s where it get’s interesting. California actually finds itself third to its northern neighbors on a wineries-per-capita basis, despite having almost three times as many wineries as Washington and Oregon combined.
When you adjust for population there are definitely some surprising results. In fact, Vermont and Idaho round out the top 5 respectively. As small population states this makes sense, but it’s still interesting as they were right in the middle of our original ranking.
The first heatmap below shows the number of wineries per state, per capita. The second is an animation that flips between the per capita numbers and the raw numbers, allowing you to compare the results when you adjust for population.
American Wineries Per State Per Capita (Adjusted For Population)
An Animated GIF Of Both Heatmaps: The Number Of Wineries Per State, And Then The Number Of Wineries Per State Adjusted For Population
