The countries of the European Union cover 4 million square kilometres, which corresponds to 38% of Europe, and have around 450 million inhabitants. With the accession of ten countries on 1 May 2004, Bulgaria and Romania on 1 January 2007 and Croatia on 1 July 2013, the EU consists of 27 members. These are Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Greece, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Croatia, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Slovakia, Spain, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Hungary, Malta and Cyprus. The map shows the member states in blue and the candidate countries in yellow. The top right image shows areas that belong to EU countries. These are, for example, the Azores and Madeira (Portugal), the Canary Islands (Spain) and Guadeloupe (France).
Official accession negotiations with Turkey began in October 2005; however, many countries are sceptical or even opposed to accession due to the political situation. The Republic of North Macedonia was granted candidate status in 2005. Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia will apply for membership in the near future. The populations of Norway and Switzerland have voted against joining the EU in a referendum. The referendum in England in June 2015 led to "Brexit" (withdrawal from the EU).
EU regulations apply to the member states. However, the different climatic conditions and market requirements are taken into account by dividing Europe into seven wine-growing zones. Within these zones, there are different characteristics with regard to deacidification, acidification and sweetening.
Amendments to the law are transferring more and more responsibility to the individual countries. There are also country-specific regulations. Third countries or third countries are states in international, integration and customs law that are not party to a treaty. In this specific case, they are not a member state of the EU or the European Economic Area. A wine trade agreement between the USA and the EU with mutual recognition of standards came into effect on 1 January 2006. Further information on wine law can be found under Wine Law.
In 2022, the area under vines worldwide totalled 7,254,512 hectares, which at around 73,000 km² is relatively close to the size of Austria (84,000 km²). This refers to all uses such as wine, grape juice, table grapes and sultanas, including young vines that are not yet in production.
A total of around 80 million tonnes of grapes were harvested worldwide. Around 47% were wine grapes (table grapes 45%, sultanas 8%), of which 258 million hectolitres of wine were produced. This corresponds to 34.4 billion 0.75 litre bottles.
EU countries accounted for 3.3 million hectares of vineyards (45%) and 161 million hectolitres of wine (62%). Compared to 2021, there was a slight decrease in both vineyard area (0.4%) and wine volumes (1%).
The geographical areas where quality viticulture is possible under optimal conditions and vines can thrive are known as the vine belt. This is where 95% of the most important areas are located. They lie from 40 to 50 degrees north and from 30 to 40 degrees south. However, there are also vineyards in between, mostly in higher areas. The criteria for the suitability of a region for viticulture are referred to as viticultural suitability.
See further country lists under Africa, America, Equator, Asia, Europe, New World, Oceania, Tropics, South America and USA, as well as a table of all countries under wine production volumes (vineyard areas and wine volumes).
Vine belt: Der Winzer 1 - Viticulture, Ulmer Verlag 2019, 4th edition
Map: by Alexrk2 - this map contains elements of CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
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Dozent, Önologe und Weinbauberater, Bad Kreuznach