Abstract:
This thesis examines the changing spatial distribution of Farm Wineries in the Mid-Atlantic United States from 1975-2015. In order to determine the factors that influence the location of Farm Wineries in developing wine regions, I conduct four sets of statistical tests upon the datasets of Farm Winery locations in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, and the total of all states within the Mid-Atlantic region (including Delaware). The four tests are temporal autocorrelation in the number of new wineries opened during each year of the study period, Nearest Neighbor Ratio of the wineries opened in each state, chi-squared test of the differences between the distribution of soil families in Farm Winery sites and the state/region, and clustering of elevation values of Farm Winery sites. Commonalities were detected in the volatility of year-to-year winery openings, indicating the influence of short-term economic factors upon the general pattern of wine region growth. Additionally, the common pattern of increased clustering of Farm Wineries over time shows a general benefit to spatial clustering in developing wine regions. The lack of commonality between states in the patterns of elevation clustering and soil family distribution demonstrate that the potential effects of both factors in the success of Farm Wineries is best examined at the local level.
