Within five years, China is expected to overtake Italy, Spain and France to become the world’s biggest wine producer, according to an anthropologist with the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS).

This means China will have to double the amount of land it has under vine within the next coming years, if these predictions are to come true. Figures taken from the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) place Spain at one million hectares (2012) and France at 800,000 hectares. However, China’s vineyards have increased by 90 per cent since 2011, putting their 2012 figures at 570,000 hectares, although a large proportion of these vines are dedicated to table grapes.

As for wine production, China produced 14.8 million hectolitres of wine in 2012, while France and Italy each made 40 million hectoliters.

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