Here’s some information that may be of help on trivia night or for those of you who simply have an enquiring mind.  Below are 2022’s wine production statistics measured in million hectolitres.  I have included production numbers for the top 30 countries; however, the complete list is available at http://www.visualcapitalist.com.  A hectolitre contains 100 litres.  The information was gathered by the International Organization of Vine and Wine (OIV).

Rank	Country	Continent	Quantity (million hl)	% of Total Production
1	Italy	Europe	49.8	19.3
2	France	Europe	45.6	17.7
3	Spain	Europe	35.7	13.8
4	United States	North America	22.4	8.7
5	Australia	Oceana	12.7	4.9
6	Chile	South America	12.4	4.8
7	Argentina	South America	11.5	4.4
8	South Africa	Africa	10.2	3.9
9	Germany	Europe	8.9	3.5
10	Portugal	Europe	6.8	2.6
11	Russia	Europe	4.7	1.8
12	China	Asia	4.2	1.6
13	New Zealand	Oceana	3.8	1.5
14	Romania	Europe	3.8	1.5
15	Brazil	South America	3.2	1.2
16	Hungary	Europe	2.9	1.1
17	Austria	Europe	2.5	1.0
18	Georga	Europe	2.1	0.8
19	Greece	Europe	2.1	0.8
20	Moldova	Europe	1.4	0.5
21	Switzerland	Europe	1.0	0.4
22	North Macedonia	Europe	0.9	0.4
23	Japan	Asia	0.8	0.3
24	Peru	South America	0.8	0.3
25	Uruguay	South America	0.8	0.3
26	Bulgaria	Europe	0.7	0.3
27	Canada	North America	0.7	0.3
28	Ukraine	Europe	0.7	0.3
29	Türkiye	Europe	0.6	0.2
30	Czech Republic	Europe	0.6	0.2

Just for fun I did some number crunching to determine the ratio of world production by continent. Because I rounded the individual country totals the overall total percentage added up to 101%, not 100. However, the continental totals will give you a fairly accurate perspective of world wine production.

Rank	Continent	Quantity (million hl)	% of Total Production
1	Europe	172,706	67
2	South America	28,661	11
3	North America	23,473	9
4	Oceana	16,575	6
5	Africa	11,136	4
6	Asia	7,307	3

It is incredible that Europe controls two thirds of the world’s wine production.  I was surprised to see that overall, North America’s wine production was greater than Oceana (Australia and New Zealand),and was very surprised to see that Canada’s production was ranked as only 27^th.  I imagined it would be somewhere closer to that of Hungary and Greece. However, quality outranks quantity. It would be interesting to know whether a quality scale could ever be devised to compare countries..

Sláinte mhaith