Top ten wine consumers
Bob Campbell MW in Wine News 
Consumption per capita saw Portugal in the lead closely followed by France and Italy. Pexels
According to provisional figures released by International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) the top 10 countries that drank the most wine in 2021 are listed below. The US led the field by a comfortable margin from France and Italy. The greatest increase from the previous year was recorded by Spain (up nearly 10%) followed by France (up by 8.6%). At the other end of the scale, China showed the largest fall in 2021 with a hefty drop of 15.4%
Top ten countries with the highest total wine consumption in 2021
| Number | Country | Total wine consumption (million hectolitres – mhl) | Movement from 2020 |
| 1 | USA | 33.1 mhl | Up 0.7% |
| 2 | France | 25.2 mhl | Up 8.6% |
| 3 | Italy | 24.2 mhl | Flat |
| 4 | Germany | 19.8 mhl | Flat |
| 5 | United Kingdom | 13.4 mhl | Flat |
| 6 | Spain | 10.5 mhl | Up nearly 10% |
| 7 | China | 10.5 mhl | Down 15.4% |
| 8 | Russia | 10.5 mhl | Up 2% |
| 9 | Argentina | 8.4 mhl | Down 11% |
| 10 | Australia | 5.9 mhl | Flat |
Consumption per capita saw Portugal in the lead closely followed by France and Italy. Australia was in sixth place, narrowly ahead of Germany.
Top ten countries with the highest wine consumption per capita in 2021
| Number | Country | Wine consumption per capita |
| 1 | Portugal | 51.9 litres |
| 2 | France | 46.9 litres |
| 3 | Italy | 46 litres |
| 4 | Switzerland | 35.3 litres |
| 5 | Austria | 30.6 litres |
| 6 | Australia | 28.7 litres |
| 7 | Germany | 27.5 litres |
| 8 | Spain | 26.2 litres |
| 9 | Netherlands | 26.1 litres |
| 10 | Belgium | 26 litres |
In 2021 New Zealanders consumed 9.6 litres of local wine and 17.7 litres of all wine per capita. Consumption of local wine has fallen by a hefty 34.6% in the past decade while consumption per capita of all wine has dropped by a more modest 15%.
Comment on why NZers drink not much more than half Australian wine consumption would be interesting. Is it because wine in Aus (like many things) is relatively cheaper than in NZ, or because the influx of Italian and Greek migrants into Australia brought their wine-drinking traditions with them, or are we just beer drinking philistines in NZ? A little analysis would have helped this snippet….