The Organization for Vine and Wine (OIV) announced new data Thursday that suggests global wine consumption has dropped to the lowest level since 1996.
John Barker, the director general of OIV, hosted a web conference from the organization’s headquarters in Dijon, France to share how vineyard surface area, wine production, wine consumption, and wine trade fared in 2023. Across the board, the numbers were pretty grim for the wine world.
The estimated global wine consumption in 2023 was 221 million hectoliters, down 2.6 percent from 2022 and 7.5 percent from 2018. Further, the world’s vineyard surface area decreased by 0.5 percent, and global wine production also dropped 10 percent compared to 2022 — the lowest output since 1961.
Looking at the numbers by country, it appears that China is driving a lot of this drop, as OIV estimates an average loss of 2 million hectoliters every year since 2018, likely due to the persistent restrictions and price pressures brought on by the pandemic. France, which maintained its position as the largest wine-consuming country in the European Union, experienced a 2.4-percent decrease from 2022. The U.S., the largest wine market in the world, faced a 3-percent decline in wine consumption in 2023, and Canada dropped 5.6 percent from 2022.
The OIV attributes the drop in consumption to inflation connected to geopolitical events and supply chain disruptions. Higher production and distribution costs, as well as a decrease in output, also contributed to significant price increases. Silicon Valley Bank’s 2023 report earlier this year, though, suggested that budget wines under $12 was actually the category that struggled the most among American consumers.
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