Even Rafael del Rey, the director-general of the official Observatorio Español del Mercado del Vino, described it as “most surprising” that for the first time Spain has produced more wine than any other country in the world, more even than the two wine giants, France and Italy.
In most years, Italy and France have jockeyed for position as the world’s leading wine producer in terms of volume – but the 2013 growing season was pretty miserable for vignerons in both countries, particularly France, where bad weather really hit the number of embryonic grape bunches formed. Yields are down, with Italy and France producing an estimated 47 and 42 million hectolitres of wine respectively. (The Organisation Internationale de la Vigne et du Vin will be publishing its final figures in May.)
Spain, on the other hand, so the official account goes, seems to have had just the right combination of sunshine and rain to produce a record harvest of 50 million hectolitres of wine – much more than in the 1990s, when average production was closer to 35 million. This increase is all the more extraordinary when you consider that the total area of vineyard in Spain shrank from 1.2 million hectares to 0.95 million hectares in the 10 years to 2012. What is going on?