All countries

Wine production is a complex global industry with various essential players. At the core are the wine-producing countries, which play a crucial role in the entire process from production to distribution. Equally important are the consuming countries, as they provide the market for the wine and contribute to the success of the industry. These mutually dependent relationships form the backbone of the wine production business, driving its global impact and economic significance.

Here are the 10 countries with the most wine production:

Argentina

Australia

Australia is an extremely important wine producing country, both in terms of quality and the scale of its wine economy. Wine Australia's 2018 annual report describes it as the sixth largest wine producer in the world. In that year output was 1.29 million liters (341 million US gallons), split 52:48 between red and white. In 2015 there were just over 135,000 hectares (c. 334,000 acres) of vineyards in Australia. 30 percent of this was planted to Shiraz, 18 percent to Cabernet Sauvignon and 16 percent to Chardonnay. Merlot covered 6 percent and Sauvignon Blanc 5 percent. Australia, an iconic 'New World' wine nation ©Jonathan Reeve Australia has developed a comprehensive appellation system. As of 2018 there were 65 designated wine regions. Readers can find more about the wine and labe

Chile

Chile has been a wine-producing country since the first European settlers arrived in the mid-16th Century. The original vines, to make sacramental wine, were brought by Catholic missionaries directly from Spain or via Peru or California. The Mission grape variety – known here as Pais – was widely planted during this time, and became the mainstay of country wines for domestic consumption. It is most common in Maule and Bio Bio in the south, mainly grown by older farmers making field blends, but it is beginning to feature in many high-quality bottlings.

France

The diversity of French wine is due, in part, to the country's wide range of climates. Champagne, its most northerly region, has one of the coolest climates anywhere in the wine-growing world – in stark contrast to the warm, dry Rhone Valley 350 miles (560km) away in the southeast.

Italy

Italy – the home of Moscato, Barolo, Super Tuscans, Chianti, Amarone, and Prosecco – has a rich and diverse wine heritage dating back more than two thousand years. Famous for its bewildering diversity of both grape varieties and wine styles, Italy is also significant for the sheer volume of wine it produces: just over 4 billion liters (around 1.06 billion US gallons) in 2012, from 800,000 hectares (197,700 acres) of vineyards. It is rivaled in this regard only by France and Spain

New Zealand

Spain

United States

The United States has confidently come of age as one of the world's top wine-producing nations. Its reputation may be founded on the global fame of Napa and Sonoma, but the U.S. is home to countless lesser-known wine regions producing world-class wines (obvious examples include Oregon's Willamette Valley and the New York Finger Lakes). Wine has been made in The States for around 400 years, but it is only in the last 40 that American wine really began to earn respect on a global scale. The U.S. is now the world's fourth-biggest wine-producing nation (behind France, Italy and Spain) and produces roughly 18.5 million hectoliters each year.

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