The world’s vineyard surface area continued its decline, shrinking by 0.5 percent from 2022 to 7.2 million hectares, according to the IOV.
“This trend, observed for the third consecutive year, was driven by the removal of vineyards in major vine-growing regions (including all types of grapes) across both hemispheres,” the OIV says in its annual report, State of The World Vine and Wine Sector in 2023.
Extreme climatic conditions and widespread fungal diseases severely impacted many vineyards worldwide, culminating in an historically low global wine production of 237 million hectolitres.
This marked a 10 percent drop from 2022 and represented the lowest output since 1961.
Global wine consumption in 2023 is estimated at 221 million hectolitres, indicating a decrease of 2.6 percent compared to 2022’s already low figures.
“The spike in production and distribution costs, driven by inflationary pressures, led to higher wine prices for consumers, who were already dealing with diminished purchasing power,” the report says.
“Despite these challenges, a few major markets demonstrated resilience.”
The international trade in wine in 2023 was also notably affected by the rise in prices.
Although the total volume of wine exported dropped to 99 million hectolitres, this was offset by a high export value, which reached 36 billion euros.
The average price per litre of export wine hit a record high of 3.62 euros per litre.
The European Union’s (EU) vineyard landscape witnessed an overall decrease of -0.8 percent in 2023, totalling 3.3 million hectares.
The modest expansions reported in Italy, Germany and Greece did not offset the level of vineyard removal observed in other EU countries.
Spain, which has the largest vineyard area in the world, accounted for 945,000 hectares in 2023 and has decreased by 1.0 percent compared to 2022.
France, with the second-largest area under vines, saw a decrease of 0.4 percent, setting at 792,000 hectares. Italy continued its positive trend since 2016, reaching 720,000 hectares.
Romania (187,000 hectares) and Portugal (182,000 hectares), the fourth and fifth largest EU vineyards, report a decline in surface areas in 2023 of -0.5 percent and -5.8 percent respectively.
Germany (104,000 hectares) and Greece (94,000 hectares) recorded slight increases of +0.3 percent and +0.9 percent respectively.
Outside the EU, Moldova maintained its position as the largest vineyard in Eastern Europe with 117,000 hectares, while Russia reported a surface area of 105,000 hectares.
After a long period of significant expansion from 2000 to 2015, the growth of the vineyard in China, third in the world by size, has slowed down in recent years and is estimated at 756,000 hectares in 2023 (-0.3 percent from 2022).
Turkey had the fifth-largest vineyard area in the world in 2023, with an estimated vineyard surface area of 410,000 hectares.
In the last ten years, Turkey has recorded a negative trend, losing almost 20 percent of its vineyard surface.
Argentina’s vineyard area decreased by 1.1 percent, reaching 205,000 hectares in 2023.
Chile also saw a significant drop of -5.6 percent, totalling 172,000 hectares.
Brazil, however, expanded its vineyard for the third consecutive year, reaching 83,000 hectares (+1.5 percent on 2022).
South Africa’s vineyard area (122,000 hectares) diminished by 1.9 percent, marking the ninth consecutive year of decline, attributed in part to severe droughts between 2015 and 2017.
Australia’s vineyard remained stable at 159,000 hectares, consistent with the average observed over the last five years.