Wine vote carries Obama to victory!
Obama beat McCain by 53 – 46 percent in the popular vote. The logic of the electoral college broadened this to a 68 – 32 percent victory. But there’s one core constituency where Obama thrashed McCain by an even wider margin: the wine vote.
Obama took nine of the top ten wine consuming states (Texas, the fourth largest wine market, was red) as well as 17 of the top 20 (Georgia and Arizona are 13th and 14th) using 2006 data on wine consumption from Adams Wine Handbook. Those states alone would have been enough to win the electoral college with 276 electoral votes for Obama. Overall, blue states this year were thirsty for wine, putting back a total of 80.8 percent of all wine consumed in America.
McCain captured nine of the ten states with the lowest consumption (Vermont was blue).
And in case half-bottle sized Vermont raises the question of whether the data per capita (of drinking age) were different, Obama actually took all of the top ten thirstiest states per capita and 18 out of the top 20. McCain took 14 of the bottom 15.
Drink wine, vote Democratic? Forget Joe Six-Pack, this year the path to the White House was through the wine glass.
Finally, and prosaically, Illinois was the number two state (behind much larger California) for Champagne and sparkling wine. I’m sure that figure went up after last Tuesday night.
Total gallons of wine consumed in blue states: 228,563,000 or 80.8 percent of the total. The top twenty wine consuming states roll after the jump.
California
Florida
New York
Texas
New Jersey
Illinois
Massachusetts
Washington
Pennsylvania
Michigan
Virginia
Ohio
North Carolina
Georgia
Arizona
Connecticut
Maryland
Colorado
Oregon
Wisconsin
Fellow wine blogger Jon Bonne crunched the numbers differently, looking at wine production and voting behavior, finding that states producing 99.6% of American wine were blue this year. [SF Chronicle]
On November 13th, 2008 at 10:30 am ,Dylan wrote:
I’m glad to have grown up in a state and went to college in another state which all appear high on the list. Kudos to the Joe Sixpack quip, well said.
On November 13th, 2008 at 10:56 am ,Terry Hughes wrote:
I’m glad my state of residence (NY) and my home state (Massachusetts) were at or near the top of the 50-state list. And I know I did MY part to assure BO’s victory with my vote, my contributions and my heavy wine drinking.
On November 13th, 2008 at 3:20 pm ,Dr. Horowitz wrote:
Interesting…thanks for sharing.
On November 13th, 2008 at 9:37 pm ,amy atwood wrote:
Glad you noted the difference between wine producing and wine consuming states. I thought the same thing last week when I saw the ‘wine states vote Obama’ articles.
Just goes to prove what I have always assumed, that democrats are smart people and wine drinkers to boot.
I wonder though, does this help the wineries understand their demographic any better?
On November 14th, 2008 at 3:25 am ,Jesse Porter wrote:
Truthfully, the “top 20” list isn’t too far off the beer-vs-wine map we used for our endorsements piece:
http://youngwinosofla.com/?p=600
The whole thing definitely begs further questions, though. What’s at the root of this disparity? Is there a correlation between wine consumption per capita and income level? Education level?
Will the increasing pervasiveness of wine culture make inroads into the red states? And will the increasing viability of the craft beer scene appeal to the same people who have traditionally embraced wine, tipping the balance the other way?
We all depend on you for the answers, Dr. V.
On November 14th, 2008 at 9:38 am ,Michael wrote:
I would suspect that while a fairly direct correlation between education or income could be drawn, that the most accurate statistic would show urban and rural in correlation with wine consumption. That would also ring pretty true with a red/blue link, acknowledging of course, that all of this is subject to variation. I hesitate to use the word “sophisticated” instead of educated, but perhaps its more appropriate? Funny, because in so many societies wine is customary, traditional, even rustic at times, while here I bet you’d get a pretty different result. I will say though that even small towns, even here in the midwest, now often have a wine shop.
That said, I am in Kansas City, between a deep red and a sort of bruise purple, but rest assured that I am doing my part to try and lift Missouri up! (Kansas, on the other hand, appears to be a lost cause, and yes, there is something the matter with Kansas)
On November 14th, 2008 at 7:31 pm ,Jesse Porter wrote:
Michael, that’s a great point. We don’t really have an equivalent of the European concept of “country wine” here, do we?
Take Italy or France — the “cheap stuff” is whatever local wine doesn’t get bottled and sent overseas. It’s rustic, it’s local, and it’s served with every meal.
But here, the “cheap stuff” comes in boxes or jugs, is grown in the Central Valley and shipped to you in a truck, and is named after places in France. As for when it’s served… in my house growing up, and I’m sure in many others, the “jug” was only brought out when guests didn’t feel like drinking beer. (Don’t worry, I’m working on my mom and dad. They’re making huge strides.)
On November 15th, 2008 at 12:17 am ,Joe wrote:
I think The Onion broke the story first:
http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/obama_clinches_joe_cabernet
Cheers,
Joe
On November 15th, 2008 at 1:16 pm ,Dr. Vino wrote:
Joe – great find! I hadn’t seen it!
Jesse – It’s multifactoral to say the least! Further investigation necessary!
On January 14th, 2009 at 9:55 pm ,Hope and change: wines for Obama and the inauguration | Dr Vino's wine blog wrote:
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