That place is Rioja, Spain’s flagship wine region, which last year sold 328.5 million bottles annually (equivalent to 240m litres), with 83.5% of it being red wine.
And last year, despite falling global wine consumption worldwide according to the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV), Rioja saw a small rise in sales, even if it was only 0.6% in volume.
The surprise comes not just with the fact that Rioja posted an increase last year, when worldwide wine sales have been falling at around 3% (OIV, 2023), but also because Rioja specialises in reds, and it has been red wines that have been suffering the most.
Indeed, an OIV report has shown that red wine production has dropped by 25% since its peak in 2004, taking reds share of global output from 48% to 43% (2021).
Meanwhile, white wine production has gone up by 13% since its lowest level in 2002, and now has a 49% share, surpassing reds in 2013.
As for rosé, the worldwide output has increased by 25% between 2001 and 2021, taking its global share from around 6% to more than 8% today.
However, Rioja has retained reds as its main source of production and sales, with its tintos up 0.6% last year, meaning they now account for 83.52% of sales, up from 83.4% in 2023.
Whites from Rioja were up 1.9% on the previous year, and as a result, showed a small rise in share, from 11.27% to 11.29% (2023 to 2024), while rosé suffered a slight decline in proportion, falling from 5.33% to 5.18%.
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