AND SPAIN GOES BIGGER

FOR WINE production that is. Last August produced a bumper grape harvest for the country. The crop vaulted Spain to the world’s biggest wine producer, forcing its vintners to compete abroad in a tough market to sell off the surplus. Spain overall produced 5O million hectolitres (6.7 billion bottles) in 2O13, a 41 percent surge from 2O12, the Spanish agriculture ministry reported. Their figure for Spanish production exceeds the estimates from the Italian and French wine industries for their own production – 47 million and 42 million hectolitres respectively. The definitive production figures from the International Organisation of Wine and Vine are published in May. Many found the leap surprising. Last summer the country experienced the usual sunny weather plus enough rain to really water the vines – the rise in production is also the result of a drive to increase productivity. Twenty-five years ago, Spanish vineyards had an average yield of 17 hectolitres per hectare but in recent years the yield has reached about 5O hectolitres per hectare. Older, less productive vines have been torn up and vineyards made more efficient by replacing handpicking with machines where possible. However, one problem for winemakers is that Spanish drinkers are not keeping pace with the surge. “Apart from Norway, Spain is the country with the lowest wine consumption per capita in Europe,” said Pau Roca, secretary general of the Spanish Wine Federation. While just eight years ago, wine made in Spain was mostly drunk there, now it is mostly exported. “In the past two years, Spain has been exporting more than double the amount of wine it consumes,” he said.