The crowd at the tasting bar was several bodies deep, packed with people eager for their glasses to be filled. Behind the bar, an amiable vintner poured Bordeaux blends and his signature cabernet franc, pointing out its clean, earthy aromas and spicy cherry flavors—characteristic, he said, of the classic French style.

But this wasn’t France, or even California. Mark Carduner is based in New Jersey, and he was showing off his product just off the Garden State Parkway, where two dozen local wineries were participating in a festival at Allaire State Park.

In addition to traditional fruit wines, New Jersey winemakers offered a surprising range of Bordeaux varietals, unusual French-American hybrids such as the earthy chambourcin, and even a vintage port or two. Chateau Lafite they weren’t, but many of the wines had a refreshing acidity that suggested they would pair well with food.

New Jersey’s wine industry has seen impressive growth in the past several years. The state has some 38 vineyards today, up from a dozen in 2001. Other unlikely locales are overflowing with wine too: Colorado now has 60 wineries, Missouri 72, Texas 90, and Virginia more than 100. In 2002, North ­Dakota became the 50th state to produce commercial wine.

“Wine has gone mainstream in America,” says Kevin Zraly, wine author and founder of Windows on the World Wine School in New York.

There are several forces behind this expansion of American winemaking. Technological advances have made it easier to produce wine in challenging conditions. A 2005 ­Supreme Court ruling paved the way for more wineries to ship their product directly to consumers—bypassing distributors and retailers, who take a hefty chunk of the profits.

More than anything, though, the renaissance is driven by the U.S. love affair with wine. Americans consumed a record 259 million cases in 2006, up from 140 million in 1991, according to the Wine Market Council. And it’s about more than just what’s in the glass; consumers want the whole wine-country experience. There were more than 27 million wine-related tourist visits throughout the U.S. in 2005, which generated an estimated $3 billion in revenue, says a study released in January by MKF Research, an industry-research firm located in Napa Valley.

Sure, roughly two-thirds of that revenue can be attributed to California. But other states looking to replicate Napa’s appeal have passed laws to encourage their budding wine regions. Wine trails linking clusters of small vineyards and B&Bs have sprouted across the country, from Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley Wine Trail to the Hermann Wine Trail in Missouri. Many wineries host concerts and festivals to attract visitors to their tasting rooms, where they make the most of their sales. In Missouri, more than 750,000 wine tourists shelled out $190 million in 2005, ­according to MKF. Pennsylvania’s 100 wineries contributed $661 million to the state’s economy in 2005, while New York’s more-established wine industry generated $3.3 billion, according to state data.

In the 1800s and early 1900s, winemaking flourished across the United States. Early colonies, such as Jamestown, Virginia, were given a directive to make wine that could be shipped back to England. Despite the fact that transplanted European vines were vulnerable to pests and disease, and wild native grapes were difficult to cultivate, by the mid-1800s the industry had blossomed.

Then came the long, dry years of Prohibition, in effect from 1920 to 1933. Many vineyards were plowed under, and the once wine-loving nation gradually lost its taste for the stuff—and its viticultural know-how.