There are a handful of countries that are world renowned for their delicious, rich wines. All wine lovers will be able to reel off some of these heavy hitters in quick succession. Have a think. There will be a few that pop into your head straight away. You’ve most likely already thought of France, Italy, and Spain among others. New Zealand and Australia might be up there too. These five are among the titans of global wine making, and for good reason.
For the first three in particular, wine is a major export. For example, France produced a whopping 47 million hectolitres in 2014, Italy an equally impressive 45 million, and Spain 43 million. That’s a lot of wine. These country’s wines have gained strong reputations for being the finest wines in the world, and huge amounts of sales have swiftly followed. But there are other nations that produce significant amount of wines that you might not immediately recognise if you’re not familiar with the industry.
There are a number of nations who are upping their wine game, and others who have been exporting large amounts of quality wine unnoticed by all but the finest connoisseurs of the drink for years. While you might know and love the wine made by those big three nations, you might also get to know, and fall in love with, those less discussed wines from those unrecognised producers. Here are three nations that you might not expect to export wine.
Lebanon
Whilst you definitely won’t expect this, Lebanon’s biggest export to the UK is wine. In 2013, the Lebanese wine market in the UK was worth £2.7 million, up a significant 33% on the previous year. The formerly war torn nation is an increasingly important country in the international wine industry, and has been undergoing a boom that has contributed to this status. Not only that, but Lebanon’s wines have received fulsome praise and glowing reviews in the UK in recent years. So while it may not seem like an obvious producer, it might be time to give Lebanese wine a chance.
China
China is not a country that you would immediately recognise as a major wine producer as its wine industry has only recently begun its rapid growth. For instance, China now has more land dedicated to vineyards than any other country after Spain. This growth in the Chinese wine industry has also been accompanied by a growth in the consumption of wine in the country, which is now the world’s biggest consumer of red wine, with 155.4 million cases bought in 2013.
The United Kingdom
There have been significant efforts in the United Kingdom over recent years to raise awareness of the British wine industry as a domestic alternative to imported French wines. It seems that these efforts have been exceptionally successful. Between 2011 and 2016, the value of the English wine sector nearly trebled from £55.7 million in to £132 million. While still not one of the world’s wine producing power houses, British wine is rightfully being increasingly valued and enjoyed.
