Americans have overtaken the French as the world’s leading wine consumers by purchasing 29.1 million hectolitres of wine in 2013, a rise of 0.5 per cent on 2012, while French consumption fell nearly seven per cent to 28.1 million hectolitres, according to figures released by the Parisian-based International Vine and Wine Organisation (OIV) rec­ently. However, France’s per capita consumption is still much higher with the average French person drinking 1.2 bottles of wine per week, well ahead of the Americans.

Production wise, France still produces more wine than the US, but a significant portion of the world’s wine is consumed in America.

World wine production last year increased by 9.4 per cent to 279 million hectoliters. This was helped by higher production levels in Spain, Chile, South Africa and New Zealand, the OIV said.

However, the estimated figures for 2014 are bleaker as the OIV warns of a possible sharp fall in output in the southern hemisphere due to adverse weather conditions.

Overall output in the main countries of the southern hemisphere, including South Africa, Brazil, New Zealand and Uruguay, could fall to between 49 to 53 million hectolitres this year, down 10 per cent on 2013.

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