Wine Country in the Keystone State

A new wine tourist destination officially launched Wednesday morning at Fort Hunter, on the banks of the Susquehanna River north of Harrisburg. The Hershey Harrisburg Wine Country will feature 12 wineries, all of which are located within a 45-minute drive from Harrisburg. The Hershey Harrisburg Wine Country (HHWC) experience will encourage local residents and tourists alike to visit wineries to taste the wine from the region’s rapidly expanding wine industry.

U.S. wine consumption increases 5.3 percent in 2011

U.S. wine sales last year totaled 347 million cases, a 5.3% increase from 2010, and had a retail value estimated at $32.5 billion, according to Jon Fredrikson of Gomberg, Fredrikson & Associates in California. The United States remains the world’s largest wine market, but when you measure adult per capita consumption around the world, we’re No. 59–after Greenland, Iceland, and Niue (where’s that?). We remain an uncivilized country when it comes to wine consumption.