Overall wine production in Europe is way down in 2017 following small harvests in some of the continent’s biggest producing regions. As you can see on my chart, production in 2017 is expected to be much lower than any year this century.
Source: OIV and Young Research & Publishing
The question is, how will the market for wine react to low global production. At Decanter, Chris Mercer examines this question.
Severe spring frosts and a spike of hot weather dubbed the ‘lucifer heatwave’ mean that Italy is facing its smallest harvest for 60 years and France is expected to produce one of its lowest grape hauls in the post-Second World War era.
Spain and Germany are also expected to see harvests shrink, although the US is expected to produce the same as last year – despite the recent fires in California wine country.
Italy, France and Spain are the world’s biggest three wine producing nations and these three expected to register declines of 23%, 19% and 15% respectively on last year, to 39.3, 36.7 and 33.5 million hectolitres.
The OIV’s warning follows on from global wine production hitting a 20-year low in 2016, with Argentina and Chile suffering from the effects of El Niño that year.
Historically low harvests have raised the question of price rises for wine lovers.
There is one bright spot in wine production in Europe though. This year will be the biggest overall crop of my favored Burgundy since 2009.
