Wine sales - which country leads?

[mariahjaltalin]

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]

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]

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]

"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]

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]

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]

...not to mention it was the Greeks who introduced wine at Marseilles...