Italy & Spain

[wineguruchgo]

While Italy produces more wine than any other country in the world, and Spain has more acreage under vine and any other country in the world....the French have more "panties in a bunch" than anyone else in the world.

Until recently (last 30 years or so) the Italians and Spanish produced wines for their own enjoyment. It's recently that they have really concentrated on making world class wines so I'm sure they never really paid attention to it (cru system, per se) as the French have for centuries.