Flavor World

Which country makes the best wines?

1022 visualizações0

This question is as easy as answering whether the most beautiful women are blondes or brunettes. That is, impossible! Defining “the best wine” is absolutely subjective, a matter of taste, but it is possible to indicate the countries with more tradition in making wines and also those that produce in greater quantity.

Tradition tells

Italy, France, Spain and Portugal have been known to produce wine for the longest time. The drink is consumed since the times of the Roman Empire (therefore, before Christ) and there are records of wineries in the medieval period, mainly in France.

Therefore, centuries and centuries of experience facilitate the improvement of techniques and selection of grape species with better quality, which results in increasingly better wines.

Even so, there are countries more “novice” in the production of wines that have found “shortcuts”, they did not have to stay centuries in the base of the trial-and-error, and today they also produce labels of excellent quality. Examples are Argentina, Chile, South Africa and the United States (in this case, a specific region of California).

Quantity results in quality

The volume of wines produced in each country can also be indicative for those who are still looking for an answer to this “best country” question. Evidently, quantity does not mean quality, but the probability of having good wines, in countries with recognized expertise in the subject, increases.

Data from the International Wine Organization (ILO) for 2018 indicate that Italy remains the largest producer of wines in the world: 5.48 billion liters. Next comes France, with 4.86 billion; Spain, with 4.44 billion liters; United States, with 2.39 billion; and then Argentina, with 1.45 billion liters, and Chile, with 1.29 billion. Brazil is only 15th in this ranking, with 310 million liters, behind Australia, Germany, South Africa, China, Portugal, Russia, Romania and Hungary.

So, among so many barrels and bottles, there are wines that are of very poor quality, wines that are very reasonable and accessible to the poor mortals and also exceptional labels – those that, in an expression I hate, “to drink on my knees”.

But, after all …

So, so that you do not have an empty glass and full of question marks in your head, I believe that the appropriate answer regarding the “country of the best wines” is: be attentive to the more traditional countries and those that produce the greater amount of wines. Naming the oxen: Italy, France, Spain, United States (California), Argentina, Chile, Portugal and South Africa.

But watch out for excellent quality labels produced in countries like Hungary, China and New Zealand.