5.7

Amount (in millions of U.S. dollars) raised during the recent Sonoma County Wine Auction, a new record for the charity event. Nearly half of the funds will be used to assist with post-fire housing. More than 5,300 homes were lost in the October 2017 fires in Sonoma County and many people are still in temporary living quarters.

China has the second-most acreage planted with vines in the world.

Answer: True.

In 2015, China overtook France as the second-largest wine grower in the world by vineyard area (Spain is still in first place). In the early 1950s, China had only about 8000 acres (3,200 hectares) of grapes. By 2016 it had two million (847,000). This 250% growth has been helped by technological advances as well as climate change. According to data from the Chinese Meteorological Administration, average temperatures in China have risen 0.5-0.8C in the last century, making it possible to cultivate wine grapes 60-100 miles further north. In the arid mountainous region of Ningxia some 550 miles west of Beijing, for example, the government has reclaimed desert-like expanses, irrigated them with water from the Yellow River, and planted them with cabernet sauvignon, marselan, and merlot. Ningxia has been called “The Napa Valley of China.”

“Nobody is growing as fast as Oregon.”

—Danny Brager, Senior VP, Nielsen, commenting on recent data revealing that Oregon wine sales increased 17% last year, compared to 3% for California and 2.8% for the U.S. as a whole.

5.7

Get WineSpeed