International Wine Appreciation: 2020 Insights
For avid travelers like VinGardeValise customers, the international appeal of wine is no secret. Nothing makes an impression on a friend or business associate like bringing a special bottle from your favorite vineyard across the ocean to share.
So it's fascinating to read the compendium of statistics about the wine industry that was recently released by the wine subscription company Firstleaf. Their review of wine statistics shows just how international wine appreciation has become.
For example, while Europe still leads the way in wine production, within the top 10 wine producing nations, five of the world's six other continents are represented.
North America: United States (4th place, 642 million gallons/year)
South America: Argentina (5th place, 343 million gallons/year) and Chile (7th place, 314 million gallons/year)
Australia (6th place, 317 million gallons/year)
Africa: South Africa (8th place, 256 million gallons/year)
Asia: China (10th place, 219 million gallons/year)
The only continent without a nation among the top 10 wine producing countries is Antarctica. We hear grapes don't grow too well at the South Pole.
The top 3 wine producing countries — Italy (1.3 billion gallons), France (1.1 billion gallons), and Spain (886 million gallons) — are all European countries. Germany makes the list too, in 9th place, with 238 million gallons produced each year.
Wine Consumption Statistics
The urge to make wine spans the globe, and so does the urge to drink it.
The United States leads the way, drinking a total of 872 million gallons of wine per year. That's nearly 25% more than the next highest wine consumers, France.
Of course, the US has far more people than France. When you look at the numbers by gallons per person, the US isn't anywhere near the top 10.
If you're looking to visit places that really, really love their wine, the "gallons per capita" list can serve as a travel bucket list.
First up is Portugal, home to production of the iconic dessert wine Port. The average person in Portugal drinks 12.8 gallons of wine per year, making it the top wine-loving nation in the world. France is second, at 10.3 gallons per person, and Italy third at 9.6 gallons per person.
Of course, anywhere you go, you can find dedicated wine drinkers consuming a lot more than their average share.
Wine Tourism Statistics
The state of California usually brings an estimated 23.6 million tourists. France hosts more than 10 million wine tourists in a normal year. Of course, the numbers weren't anywhere close to that in 2020, and will likely be down in 2021 as well.
Once we can all travel more freely, we anticipate wine tourism getting right back to where it was. And we know you'll be packing your VinGardeValise with incredible new vintages. After all, the grapes didn't stop growing.
