New World Wines
Dear Wine for Funners As the initial lockdown passes and easing of restrictions continues, I’m not sure that we should be trying to regain the ‘normal’ that we took for granted, but rather, despite the uncertainty, embrace the changes to come. We have the opportunity to explore a new way of being, a new ‘norm’. In that vein, in with the new … New World wines The classification was originally based on geography with Europe and Mediterranean countries being the Old World and the New World being represented by the countries that they then colonised such as Australia, Chile, New Zealand, South Africa, Argentina and the USA. These new winemakers were able to experiment unencumbered by the constraints of tradition and rules and regulations. Over time these two contrasting approaches have established a middle ground where the New world producers are increasingly adopting the better aspects of tradition, and the Old World have taken on board the technical innovations pioneered by the New World. In the last quarter of the 20th century global exports of wine from the New World rose from 3% to 23% of the total. In 2020 New World producers account for six out of the ten top producers in terms of volume: Italy 4,796,600 tonnes Spain 4,607,850 tonnes France 4,293,466 tonnes United States of America, 3,300,000 tonnes China 1,700,000 tonnes Argentina 1,498,380 tonnes Chile 1,214,000 tonnes Australia 1,186,343 tonnes South Africa 1,146,006 tonnes Germany 920,200 tonnes Portugal 603,327 tonnes Romania 378,283 tonnes Greece 334,300 tonnes Russia 327,400 tonnes New Zealand 320,400 tonnes Brazil 273,100 tonnes Hungary 258,520 tonnes Austria 199,869 tonnes Serbia 198,183 tonnes Moldova 149,850 tonnes [worldpopulationreview.com] Initially New World wines reflected a tendency to showcase the qualities of the different varieties rather than relying on those traditionally associated with geographic regions and techniques.
[Show full text]