Europe 1 with AFP / Credits: JEAN-PIERRE MULLER / AFP 16:28 p.m., November 07, 2023

While the International Organisation of Vine and Wine indicated on Tuesday a significant drop in world production, France has once again become the world's leading wine supplier. In first place in previous years, the Italian vines have suffered greatly from the climatic conditions.

France, with stable production, has once again become the world's leading wine supplier ahead of Italy, where production has fallen by 12%, revealed Tuesday the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) in its first assessment of the 2023 harvest. Between early frosts, torrential rains, mildew and droughts, global wine production has nevertheless fallen this year by 7%, to its lowest level since 1961.

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France stabilizes

In France, even if production has stabilised overall, there are strong disparities, the OIV said. Bordeaux and the South-West region have faced the spread of mildew, a scourge due to rains associated with heat, while Languedoc-Roussillon has been affected by heat waves and drought. On the other hand, "particularly large" volumes are expected in Cognac, Corsica and Champagne, the OIV stresses.

The fact that France is once again becoming the world's leading producer, however, leaves indifferent the president of the Vignerons cooperators de France, Joël Boueilh. "I'd rather have winemakers who produce wines that sell well," he said at a press conference in mid-October.

Disparate results

In the southern hemisphere, Australia (-24%), Argentina (-23%), Chile (-20%) and South Africa (-10%) were particularly affected.

A few countries did well, led by the United States (+12%), which retained its position as the world's 4th largest supplier, thanks to cool temperatures and heavy winter rains in the Napa and Sonoma wine regions.

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The Italian harvest suffers

A winemaker for more than twenty years in Loreto Aprutino in central Italy, Antonella di Tonno, 43, has never experienced such a calamitous harvest, with hailstorms and long periods of torrential rain followed by a great drought.

At the end of June, "a violent hailstorm hit one of our vineyards in Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, covering six hectares, destroying 60% of its production in a few minutes," the owner of the Talamonti winery told AFP. "We have suffered a 25% drop in our production, red and white grapes combined, compared to an average of 40% in our region, Abruzzo. We're doing pretty well with precision instruments like humidity sensors," she says.

Italy, with 504 vine varieties, each requiring a different ripening time, is particularly "exposed to the effects of capricious weather, given that harvesting operations there last more than 100 days, the longest in Europe," the main agricultural union Coldiretti recently pointed out.