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World wine production in 2016 was one of the lowest in the past 20 years. This was reported by the French magazine La Revue du Vin de France with reference to the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV). The main reason for the drop in production was bad weather conditions in many major producing countries.
According to the OIV, the global area under vines amounted to 7.4 million hectares last year. The volume of wine produced was 259 million hectolitres, a decrease of five percent compared to 2015. Countries in the southern hemisphere were particularly affected: Argentina lost its position as the world's fifth largest wine producer and dropped to ninth place; production fell by 35 percent to 8.8 million hectoliters. In Chile, the volume of wine produced fell by 21 per cent to 10.1 million hectolitres, while Brazil's wine production volume fell by half to 1.4 million hectolitres. South Africa suffered losses of 19 per cent and recorded a production volume of 9.1 million hectolitres.
Due to the slump in South America, China climbed to sixth place in global wine production, even though the volume of 11.5 million hectolitres remained unchanged from the previous year. In fifth place is Australia with 12.5 million hectolitres, and in fourth place is the United States of America with 22.5 million hectolitres. The three largest wine producers in the world are still Italy with 48.8 million hectolitres, France with 41.9 million hectolitres and Spain with 37.8 million hectolitres. In terms of wine exports, Spain is ahead of Italy and Spain in terms of volume, and France is ahead of Italy and Spain in terms of value.
According to OIV estimates, eight to twelve percent of the global volume of wine is now produced organically - "a trend that is not at all marginal and is developing a bit everywhere," quotes La Revue du Vin de France OIV Director General Jean-Marie Aurand. In the IGP Pays d'Oc denomination of origin in the French Languedoc wine region, organic wines even account for almost a quarter.