Wine countries

The big three 3

Together, roughly half the wine made on earth.

• ItalyUsually the world's largest producer by volume, and far and away the most varied: every one of its twenty regions makes wine, from Alpine whites to Sicilian reds.5 guides
• FranceThe reference point. Most of the world's most-planted varieties left here, and the appellation system France invented in the 1930s was copied almost everywhere else.8 guides
• SpainMore land under vine than any country on earth, though lower yields mean it usually finishes third by volume. Old bush-vine Garnacha and Tempranillo dominate.5 guides

Major producers 7

Large volumes and established export trade.

• United StatesCalifornia accounts for the overwhelming majority, but wine is now made commercially in all fifty states. Oregon and Washington are serious cool- and warm-climate counterweights.4 guides
• ArgentinaHigh-altitude viticulture on a scale nowhere else attempts — Mendoza vineyards sit between 800 and 1,500 metres, with some in Salta above 3,000.1 guide
• ChileWalled off by the Andes, the Atacama and the Pacific, Chile never suffered phylloxera — so most vines grow on their own roots.1 guide
• AustraliaHome to the oldest continuously producing vines on earth, because phylloxera never reached South Australia. Shiraz is the signature; cool-climate regions have grown sharply.4 guides
• South AfricaWinemaking since 1659, giving it the oldest documented history outside Europe. Chenin Blanc — locally Steen — is planted more here than anywhere, France included.1 guide
• GermanyThe world's benchmark for Riesling, grown at the northern edge of ripening on some of the steepest worked slopes anywhere.2 guides
• PortugalA small country with an unusually deep bench of native varieties — well over 250, most grown nowhere else — plus Port and Madeira, two fortified styles it invented.2 guides

Established 26

Long traditions, meaningful production, often little-exported.

• ChinaVast vineyard area — among the largest on earth — though much of it grows table grapes. Fine-wine production is concentrated in Ningxia and Shandong and improving fast.
• RomaniaConsistently among Europe's largest producers by volume and barely known outside it, with a deep set of indigenous varieties.
• RussiaProduction is concentrated in the warm south around Krasnodar and the Black Sea, with sparkling wine a longstanding speciality.
• AustriaRebuilt entirely around quality after a 1985 adulteration scandal destroyed its bulk export trade — now one of Europe's most tightly regulated wine countries.1 guide
• GreeceContinuous winemaking for over 4,000 years, and a set of native varieties — Assyrtiko above all — that exist essentially nowhere else.1 guide
• HungaryTokaj was classified in 1730, decades before Bordeaux, and its botrytised sweet wines were once the most prized in Europe.1 guide
• New ZealandRedefined one grape in a single generation. Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc went from a 1973 experiment to the global template for the variety.2 guides
• BrazilConcentrated in the cooler south, where high rainfall makes viticulture difficult — sparkling wine has become the strength.
• MoldovaAmong the most vine-dense countries on earth relative to its size, with wine a central part of the economy.
• BulgariaA major exporter during the Communist era, now rebuilding around native varieties after decades of bulk production.
• GeorgiaArchaeological evidence puts winemaking here around 6000 BC — the oldest known anywhere. Qvevri fermentation in buried clay vessels is still in everyday use.1 guide
• SwitzerlandSteep Alpine terraces and almost no exports — the Swiss drink nearly everything they make, so the wines are rarely seen abroad.
• CroatiaDalmatian coast and islands, with a genuine claim on Zinfandel: DNA testing identified its origin in the local Crljenak Kaštelanski.
• SerbiaA long tradition interrupted by the twentieth century, now recovering with both international and revived local varieties.
• UkraineVineyards concentrated in the warm south near the Black Sea, with a sparkling wine tradition dating to the nineteenth century.
• CzechiaAlmost all production is in Moravia in the southeast, where the climate mirrors neighbouring Lower Austria.
• SlovakiaShares the Tokaj region with Hungary across the border, and makes similar botrytised sweet wines under the same name.
• SloveniaSmall but influential — the Brda hills continue Italy's Collio across the border, and Slovenia helped drive the modern revival of skin-contact white wine.
• CanadaThe world's leading producer of icewine, made from grapes left to freeze solid on the vine and pressed while still frozen.1 guide
• MexicoThe oldest winemaking in the Americas — vines were planted in the 1520s — though production stayed small for centuries under Spanish restrictions.
• UruguayBuilt almost entirely around Tannat, a thick-skinned Basque variety that found a better home here than in its native Madiran.
• IsraelAncient winemaking, a modern industry rebuilt from the 1880s, and recent archaeological work reviving varieties grown here two thousand years ago.
• TurkeyOne of the largest vineyard areas on earth, but the great majority grows table grapes and raisins; wine is a small fraction of the crop.
• MoroccoThe largest wine industry in the Maghreb today, centred on the cooler Atlantic-influenced areas near Meknès.
• AlgeriaOnce the largest wine exporter in the world — in the early twentieth century Algerian red was routinely blended into French wine. The industry shrank dramatically after independence.
• TunisiaA Mediterranean industry with Roman roots, best known today for rosé and for Muscat of Alexandria.

Emerging & small 16

Small volumes, ancient histories, or both.

• United KingdomThe fastest-growing wine country in Europe. Southern England sits on the same chalk seam as Champagne, and traditional-method sparkling is the result.
• JapanBuilt around Koshu, a pink-skinned variety grown here for centuries that makes delicate, low-alcohol whites suited to Japanese food.
• LebanonWinemaking in the Bekaa Valley goes back to Phoenician times, and continued through the civil war largely without interruption.1 guide
• PeruThe first vines in South America were planted here in the 1540s. Most of the crop now goes to pisco rather than wine.
• BoliviaAmong the highest vineyards on earth — Tarija sits above 1,800 metres, with some plots past 2,400.
• ArmeniaThe oldest known winery — around 4100 BC — was excavated at Areni, and the variety grown around it still carries the name.
• North MacedoniaA long Balkan tradition built on Vranec, a dark, firm red grown across the former Yugoslavia.
• MontenegroDominated by Vranac around Lake Skadar, including one of the largest single vineyards in Europe.
• Bosnia and HerzegovinaConcentrated in the warm limestone of Herzegovina, working with two varieties found almost nowhere else.
• AlbaniaViticulture dating to antiquity, rebuilding after the collectivised era with native varieties.
• CyprusHome to Commandaria, a sweet wine made the same way since at least the twelfth century and often called the oldest named wine still in production.
• LuxembourgA narrow strip along the Moselle, making dry whites and sparkling Crémant — styles closer to Alsace than to German Mosel.
• IndiaA young industry concentrated on the Deccan plateau, where altitude offsets the tropical latitude.
• KazakhstanVineyards in the far southeast near Almaty, in the foothills of the Tian Shan.
• UzbekistanAn ancient Silk Road grape culture, though most of the crop is table grapes and raisins rather than wine.
• EgyptWine was made in the Nile Delta for the pharaohs; the modern industry is small and centred near Alexandria.