In 1981, the Reagan administration in the United States ended the price controls on wine that had been in place since the Nixon era, a move that was part of a broader deregulation of the economy. This decision had a significant impact on the American wine industry, encouraging investment and innovation, and it helped to spur the growth of the modern wine industry in California and other states. The deregulation allowed for greater competition and experimentation, leading to a boom in the production and quality of American wines, which in turn increased the demand for wine transport and storage technologies.

The deregulation of the wine industry in the United States is part of the larger story of the growth of American wine culture, a phenomenon that has been reflected in the poetry and literature of the period. The rise of Napa Valley and other wine regions became a subject for American poets, who wrote about the landscape, the labor, and the pleasures of wine. The ability to produce and transport wine on a large scale has made wine a more accessible symbol in contemporary American poetry, appearing in the work of poets as diverse as Robert Hass and Mary Oliver.