The gentleman pictured at the right is Claude Robbins, M.W.A. and Director of the International Wine Guild. The International Wine Guild is the organization through which I received my CWS and offers a plethora of courses for the wine professional, as well as the general public. As a Guild member, I receive regular newsletters and their most recent one included Claude’s recap of recent data released on wine growing, production and consumption. For today’s blog, I’ve decided to borrow and pass along some items of interest from that recap.
The data is from five year rolling averages and covers the period 2004-2008:
Wine Production:
The biggest news arising from the data was Italy moving past France into the number one ranking among wine producing countries. France remains in first place in total wine consumption.
Italy, France and Spain are the top three wine producing nations in the world and represent 48% of the world’s total wine production. The United States, Argentina, Australia, China, Germany, South Africa and Chile round out the top ten producers of wine (Only 60 countries are currently being tracked as wine producing countries).
Chile and China showed the largest percentage increases in wine production at 32.7% and 23.9% respectively.
Total Wine Consumption:
As previously mentioned France ranks number one in total consumption, followed by Italy and the United States in almost a tie for second. (Italy nudges out the U.S. by about 7 million gallons). Rounding out the top ten in total consumption are Germany, China, Spain, United Kingdom, Argentina, Russia and Romania. Together, these 10 countries account for 72% of the world’s total wine consumption. China’s advancement on both the total production and total consumption lists is significantly notable. The wine world’s interest in China is growing by leaps and bounds with some of the world’s top producers establishing footholds there. The aforementioned director of the International Wine Guild just returned from China after establishing and training a staff that provide wine education in that country. It’s also interesting to note the United Kingdom’s number seven rank in total consumption especially when you consider they rank #58 out of 60 countries in total production. This means the U.K imports 99.5% of the wine it consumes. That makes them pretty keen observers on the overall world of wine and is one reason I always try to glean regular commentary and observations from the British wine blogs and wine trade publications, particularly Decanter magazine.
Per Capita Wine Consumption:
Most people would probably guess France as the leader in this category and while they do rank high (#3 at 14.1 gallons per person annually), they are surpassed by folks from the Vatican (#1 @ 17.6 gallons) and Norfolk Island (#2 @ 15.2 gallons). Luxembourg, Andorra, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, Falkland Islands and Croatia round out the top ten all at 10 gallons and more per person annually. The United States has moved up four positions in this category to #57 with a consumption of 2.56 gallons per person, a 14.5% increase since the previous report two years ago. The world wide average for 223 countries is 1.2 gallons per capita.
Total Wine Exports:
Italy France and Spain top the list, each exporting slightly more 30% of their total production (all are on the top ten list in total production, as well). Australia, another top ten country is total production comes in at number four in wine export volume. Its exports are a stunning 56.1% of total wine production. Chile, South Africa, United State, Argentina, Germany and Portugal round out the top ten exporters with both Chile and Portugal joining Australia as major producers who export over half the wine they produce. Moldavia ranks #12 exporting 29.6% of its production; but of even more interest is the fact that the taxes on exported wine provides 15% of the country’s total income!
Wine Imports:
As previously mentioned the United Kingdom is tops in percentage of wine consumption that is imported. Their total imports amount to over 300 million gallons. France and the United States join them in as huge importers. France imports almost 517 million gallons or about 38% of its consumption. The U.S. imports a little over 222 million gallons, or 29.2% of its total consumption. Together these three import over a billion gallons of wine!
The wonderful thing about exploring the world of wine is that there’s always growth, development and something new being added to a diversity of choices that is already seemingly unlimited. In short, there’s always something new and exciting to enjoy. Go ahead and do some exploration today!
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