(HuffingtonPost) - I wonder how many Americans realize their importance in the world of wine. The United States has recently overtaken France and Italy to become the globe's biggest market, drinking a full 13 percent of all the wine produced on the planet, more than any other nation. While wine drinking has been declining rapidly in the European countries that make so much of it -- France, Italy and Spain -- we are amazed at how rapidly and firmly a wine culture has been established in the U.S.

In cities such as New York, Chicago and San Francisco, you can hardly move for wine tastings, wine bars, wine courses and people who are parlaying their interest in wine into building collections, visiting urban wineries and taking wine tours. But even in the vastness of America between the coasts, wine has been catching on. We looked up wine events in Des Moines, for example, and were delighted to find at least one a month. What we like about this development is that these new wine lovers, many of them relatively young, are working out their own preferences rather than being spoon-fed a series of ratings.