Similar movement is afoot if we turn from quantity to quality: over the past decade, Spanish wine has become so much more exciting and diverse. That means Spain, which itself experienced a significant but lesser drop of 14%, and which is still some way behind Italy, is currently Europe’s second-largest wine producer.
The weather gods were particularly unkind to France, where output fell by almost a third on the previous vintage. According to figures released earlier this month by the international wine research body the OIV, a year of extreme weather events including unseasonal frost and record high summer temperatures saw wine production drop dramatically across the continent. 2021 has been a different story, however.
Tapa Roja Monastrell, Yecla, Spain 2019 (£7, Marks & Spencer) Of the big three European producers, France and Italy usually produce the most wine each year.