FRANCE RECLAIMS ITS THRONE

FRANCE IS ONCE again the world’s biggest wine producer after a poor 2O14 harvest saw Italy’s wine production plunge 15 percent. French vignerons will produce around 46.2 million hectoliters of wine – about 6.16 billion bottles – this year, up 1O percent from a year earlier. Italy, whose winemakers have out-produced France’s for the last two years, will produce 44.4 million hectoliters of wine in 2O14, according to figures released Thursday by the Paris-based International Organization of Vine and Wine. Total world wine production is set to fall 6 percent this year to 271 million hectoliters. Spain, which leapfrogged France into second place in 2O13, will see its wine production fall 19 percent this year to 37 million hectoliters, the organization said.