Buone notizie for the land of pasta and Lamborghini – Italy is also now the biggest wine producer in the world after a bumper harvest this year, pushing France back into second place. Spain has been hit by drought and further saw its output drop.
The European Union’s farm federation assessed the 2015 grape harvest and said Wednesday that excellent weather in many member states had pushed up production by 2.7 percent.
Thierry Coste, an expert with the Copa-Cogeca federation, noted “good yields and quality, partly as a result of the better weather conditions.” Production rose to 171.2 million hectoliters from 166.7 million hectoliters last year.
Much of eastern Europe shared in the good results. Spain, though, saw its production fall to 40.6 million hectoliters this year from 53.6 million hectoliters the year before. Italy’s production totaled 50.4 million hectoliters.
The Associated Press contributed to this article