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The world saw a dramatic drop in production in 2017, due primarily to severe frosts that hit Italy, France, and Spain at just the wrong time in April, damaging buds on a large proportion of vines over a broad area. Almost every region in Italy saw damage from the frosts and later from a drought that exacerbated the problems. With the top three wine-producing countries experiencing double-digit declines in their harvest, global wine production fell to its lowest level this century. Fortunately, the damage was not so severe as to kill many vines, so the harvest should return to normal in 2018, if there is such a thing as normal anymore.

Italy was among the hardest-hit nations, with almost all regions suffering losses. The International Organization of Vine and Wine (OIV) estimates Italy’s wine production from the 2017 harvest to be off last year’s by 17% at just 42.5 million hectoliters, which could have dropped Italy to second or third in the global rankings if France and Spain had not been afflicted even worse. Germany, too, was down by 15%. In the New World, Argentina partially recovered from a poor 2016 harvest, and Australia was up 5%, while Chile continued to slide. The United States and South Africa were relatively stable.

(Volume in thousands of hectoliters; e.g., global production is around 250 million hl)

 

Note: 2017 data are estimated and are likely to change in future reports.

Source: OIV, March 2018

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