In honor of the Olympics, we have the lowdown on how countries stack up in the Olympic and wine worlds. We’re believers that there is no “best” in wine. Scores, grades and competitions don’t mean anything at all. What matters is that you enjoy what you’re drinking and you keep on drinking it. Wine, like sport, is global and we encourage you to experience as much of it as you can, but again, drink what you enjoy.
Top medal winning countries of 2012 Summer Games
1. US, 103
2. China, 88
3. Russia, 79
4. Great Britain, 65
5. Germany, 44
Top wine consuming countries in 2015 (in million hectoliters)
1. US, 31
2. France, 27.2
3. Italy, 20.5
4. Germany, 20.5
5. China, 16
Top wine producing countries in 2015 (in million hectoliters)
1. Italy, 49.5
2. France, 47.5
3. Spain, 37.2
4. US, 22.1
5. Argentina, 13.3
Global vineyard surface area, by country (in hectares)
1. Spain, 1,021,000
2. China, 830,000
3. France, 786,000
4. Italy, 682,000
5. Turkey, 497,000
Olympic Wine Tour
These six countries were featured in our August box as we explored great wines made across the world.
France is the top wine exporter – valued at $9.2 billion. France and Italy account for nearly half of total wine exports in the world.
Schloss Vollrads in Germany is one of the oldest operating wineries in the world. Its first wine sale was in 1211.
In 2015, Italy was the No. 1 wine producer by volume at 49.5 million hectoliters, or roughly 6.6 billion standard bottles of wine!
Slovenia has a winery for every 70 people and has one of the highest per capita consumptions of wine, roughly 38.6 liters per person in 2014.
Spain had 1.02 million hectares of vineyard surface area in 2015. That’s roughly 2,500,000 acres or more than 1.9 million football fields!
The US is the No. 1 wine consuming country, and the District of Columbia has the highest per capita consumption, averaging 25.7 liters per person.
