Wine sales - which country leads? - Printable Version +- WineBoard (https://www.wines.com/wineboard) +-- Forum: GENERAL (https://www.wines.com/wineboard/forum-100.html) +--- Forum: For the Novice (https://www.wines.com/wineboard/forum-2.html) +--- Thread: Wine sales - which country leads? (/thread-18487.html) |
- mariahjaltalin - 03-06-2001 As we are now able to buy good wine from so many countries other than France, I was wondering which country is the leader? Both in volume and value. - Innkeeper - 03-06-2001 Hi Mariahjaltalin, and welcome to the Wine Board. Here are volume figures for 1997 of the top ten producers. Figures are in millions of gallons. France 1452 Italy 1304 Spain 896 U.S. 653 Argentina 392 South Africa 227 Germany 222 Romania 177 Australia 162 Portugal 144 Value is a moving target. In days of yore, a discovered region could stay a good deal for generations. No more. With modern communications and pervasive media, good deal regions quickly get the word, and just as rapidly raise their prices. Right now some of the best values are coming from the non-traditional Italian regions, the Vins De Pays from France, Portugal, Argentina, South Africa, and (fading fast) New Zealand. [This message has been edited by Innkeeper (edited 03-06-2001).] - mariahjaltalin - 03-07-2001 Thank you so much for the information, interesting to see that Italy is catching up on France. I´m glad that I found this website in my search for wine info, will be checking it regularly. Maria - Blue - 03-07-2001 "Italy is catching up with France" We're talking volume here, not quality. Even in France, 2/3 of wine grown is non-AOC. Italy and other countries make very fine wine, but VOLUME of wine produced is a very poor way to compare wine producing countries. In general to make good wine you need to restrict the yield from your grapes. By removing a portion of the grapes early you intensify the flavor in the remaining grapes. BTW Italian wine for example is very famous in the Former Soviet Union as they have been flooded by a large quantity of poor quality italian wine ($1-2/bottle). I was served such a bottle in Kyrgyzstan last summer....ummm delicious :-) On the other hand we have all had amazing Barollo and Chianti... So the point is: just look for quality wines, from wherever they are from, who cares how much bad stuff that country produces.... - Thomas - 03-07-2001 Blue, you said a veritable mouthful. Incidentally: historically, Italy has been a great wine producer since about 121 BC. France benifitted from a problem Italy had--namely, the fall of the Roman Empire. From that point, it has been a long trek for Italy, but the wines have always been reasonable and often great; why else would French producers include Italian wines in their blends for centuries, especially when they had to during the phylloxera blight? - barnesy - 03-07-2001 France also benefited from the Romans bringing several grape varieties INTO France. I won't even begin on the "fall" of the Roman Empire... Barnesy - Thomas - 03-08-2001 ...not to mention it was the Greeks who introduced wine at Marseilles... |