Which country drinks the most wine?

The latest figures released by OIV  has shown that it was not French or Italian that boast the highest per capita wine consumption. When it comes to guzzling down wine, Portuguese can perhaps drink anyone under the table.

The country drank copious amounts of wine and its per capita wine consumption reached 62 litres a year in 2018 for a country of 10 million people, according to the latest figures released by OIV on July 13.

France is second to Portugal in wine consumption, drinking 50 litres a year.

Italy was close behind in third place with 44 litres of wine consumption a year.

Switzerland and Belgium came in fourth and fifth, with 36 litres a year and 32 litres respectively.

Australia ranked as the sixth country with the highest per capita wine consumption at 30 litres a year, ahead of Hungary’s 29 litres and Germany’s 28 litres.

Romania and Spain tied in at ninth place with a per capita wine consumption of 27 litres a year.

Argentina and Netherlands broke even at No. 10 with 25 litres.

UK, considered a big wine market, fell out of top 10. On average, the British people drank 23 litres of wine a year in 2018.

In North America, Canadian per capita consumption of wine was 16 litres a year, compared with 12 litres recorded for Americans.

Though in terms of total wine consumption globally, the US still remains the biggest wine market in the world, with 33 million hl of wine consumed in 2018, according to OIV.

South Africa’s per capita wine consumption was 11 litres, slightly ahead of Russia’s 10 litres.

In Asia, Japan ranked the highest in terms of wine consumption at 3 litres a year. China’s per capita wine consumption saw a slight increase to now 2 litres a year, thanks to urbanisation and rising middle class.

Brazil’s per capita consumption is the same as China’s at 2 litres a year.

Here’s a detailed breakdown of the world’s top 15 countries with highest per capita wine consumption, and top wine consumers in 2018.