wines 

ITALY

Italian wine is produced in every region of Italy, home to some of the oldest wine-producing regions in the world. Italy is the world's largest producer of wine, with an area of 702,000 hectares (1,730,000 acres) under vineyard cultivation, and contributing a 2013–2017 annual average of 48.3 million hl of wine.


Italy's twenty wine regions correspond to the twenty administrative regions of the country. Wine in Italy tends to reflect the local cuisine. Regional cuisine also influences wine. The DOCG wines are located in 15 different regions but most of them are concentrated in Piedmont, Lombardia, Veneto and Tuscany.

SPAIN

Spain is the world’s second-largest wine-producing country and produces unique red, white, and sparkling wine. It also has the largest vineyard area in the world.


Most Spanish wine lovers are probably familiar with grapes like Tempranillo, Garnacha, Monastrell (Mourvèdre), Albariño, Viura and Verdejo. Yet, the roster of those worth attention expands to include Bobal, Graciano, Godello, Treixadura, Loureiro and Mencía.

PORTUGAL

There are, in total, fourteen Delimited Wine Regions (Regiões Demarcadas) in Portugal, including one in each archipelago.
Vinho Verde is grown on the northwest region of Portugal and one of the most famous wine varieties from Portugal, just behind Port Wine.

Although it literally means “green wine”, the name is not due to its color, but to the fact that the wine is not yet matured enough, since it is usually consumed around 3-6 months after harvesting. In this sense, ‘verde’ means young.

This wine is a DOC (“Denominação de Origem Controlada” or Denomination of Controlled Origin), meaning that the region from where this wine is from is a protected region that can only produce that variety.

It is fairly known in Portugal, especially in the North. It is usually cheaper than other wines (you can even find wine made by independent producers, people that just make it in their backyards or small farms) and it is naturally light, fresh, and sometimes fruity. One of its most famous characteristics is its little fizz (although they are not officially recognized as sparkling or semi-sparkling).

You can find it as a white wine (the most common) or as red, rosé and even as ‘aguardente’, vinegar or bagasse.

FRANCE

French wines are usually made to accompany food.
Vineyards in Vosne-Romanée in Burgundy, a village that is the source of some of France's most expensive wines.

Château Pichon Longueville Baron in Pauillac corresponds well to the traditional image of a prestigious French château, but in reality, French wineries come in all sizes and shapes.
French wine is produced all throughout France, in quantities between 50 and 60 million hectolitres per year, or 7–8 billion bottles. France is one of the largest wine producers in the world.

France is the source of many grape varieties (such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Pinot noir, Sauvignon blanc, Syrah) that are now planted throughout the world, as well as wine-making practices and styles of wine that have been adopted in other producing countries. 

GERMANY

German wine is primarily produced in the west of Germany, along the river Rhine and its tributaries, with the oldest plantations going back to the Roman era. Approximately 60 percent of German wine is produced in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, where 6 of the 13 regions (Anbaugebiete) for quality wine are situated.

Germany has about 103,000 hectares (252,000 acres or 1,030 square kilometers) of vineyard, which is around one tenth of the vineyard surface in Spain, France or Italy. The total wine production is usually around 10 million hectoliters annually, corresponding to 1.3 billion bottles, which places Germany as the eighth-largest wine-producing country in the world. White wine accounts for almost two thirds of the total production.

ARGENTINA

Argentina is the fifth largest producer of wine in the world.Historically, Argentine winemakers were traditionally more interested inquantity than quality with the country consuming 90% of the wine itproduces. 


Until the early 1990s, Argentina producedmore wine than any other country outside Europe, though the majority ofit was considered unexportable. However, the desire to increaseexports fueled significant advances in quality. Argentine wines startedbeing exported during the 1990s, and are currently growing inpopularity, making it now the largest wine exporter in South America.The devaluation of the Argentine peso in 2002 further fueled theindustry as production costs decreased and tourism significantlyincreased, giving way to a whole new concept of enotourism in Argentina.


Themost important wine regions of the country are located in the provincesof Mendoza, San Juan and La Rioja. Salta, Catamarca, Río Negro and morerecently southern Buenos Aires are also wine producing regions. TheMendoza province produces more than 60% of the Argentine wine and is thesource of an even higher percentage of the total exports. Due to thehigh altitude and low humidity of the main wine producing regions,Argentine vineyards rarely face the problems of insects, fungi, moldsand other grape diseases that affect vineyards in other countries. Thisallows cultivating with little or no pesticides, enabling even organicwines to be easily produced.

CHILE

Chilean wine has a long history for a New World wine region, as it wasthe 16th century when the Spanish conquistadors brought Vitis viniferavines with them as they colonized the region. In the mid-19th century,French wine varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Carmenère andFranc were introduced. In the early 1980s, a renaissance began with theintroduction of stainless steel fermentation tanks and the use of oakbarrels for aging. Wine exports grew very quickly as quality wineproduction increased. 

Chile is now the fifth largestexporter of wines in the world, and the seventh largest producer.  Themost common grapes are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Carmenère.

JAPAN

Sake is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made byfermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite thename Japanese rice wine, sake, and indeed any East Asian rice wine (suchas huangjiu and cheongju), is produced by a brewing process more akinto that of beer, where starch is converted into sugars which fermentinto alcohol, whereas in wine, alcohol is produced by fermenting sugarthat is naturally present in fruit, typically grapes.

Thebrewing process for sake differs from the process for beer, where theconversion from starch to sugar and then from sugar to alcohol occurs intwo distinct steps.

ARMENIAN

Sake is an alcoholic beverage of Japanese origin made byfermenting rice that has been polished to remove the bran. Despite thename Japanese rice wine, sake, and indeed any East Asian rice wine (suchas huangjiu and cheongju), is produced by a brewing process more akinto that of beer, where starch is converted into sugars which fermentinto alcohol, whereas in wine, alcohol is produced by fermenting sugarthat is naturally present in fruit, typically grapes.

Thebrewing process for sake differs from the process for beer, where theconversion from starch to sugar and then from sugar to alcohol occurs intwo distinct steps.
REPUBLIC OF GEORGIA
Georgia is one of the oldest wine regions in the world. The fertile valleys and protective slopes of the Transcaucasia were home to grapevine cultivation and neolithic wine production (Georgian: ღვინო, ɣvino) for at least 8000 years. Due to the many millennia of wine in Georgian history and its prominent economic role, the traditions of wine are considered entwined with and inseparable from the national identity.

Among the best-known Georgian wine regions are Kakheti (further divided into the micro-regions of Telavi and Kvareli), Kartli, Imereti, Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti, Adjara and Abkhazia.
LITHUANIA
Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania (Lithuanian: LietuvosRespublika), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one ofthree Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea.Lithuania shares land borders with Latvia to the north, Belarus to theeast and south, Poland to the south, and Russia to the southwest. It hasa maritime border with Sweden to the west on the Baltic Sea. Lithuaniacovers an area of 65,300 km2 (25,200 sq mi), with a population of 2.8million. Its capital and largest city is Vilnius; other major cities areKaunas and Klaipėda. Lithuanians belong to the ethno-linguistic groupof the Balts and speak Lithuanian, one of only a few living Balticlanguages.
NEW ZEALAND
an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island and the South Island—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island country by area and lies east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and south of the islands of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. The country's varied topography and sharp mountain peaks, including the Southern Alps, owe much to tectonic uplift and volcanic eruptions. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, and its most populous city is Auckland.