What is the Largest Wine Producer in the World?

When people talk about the world’s largest wine producers, they tend to focus on the country’s producing the wines. That means Italy comes out on top at the moment, as the country creates more bottles of wine per year than any other.

But what about the companies behind the wines you drink?

What is the world’s largest wine-producing company and what is its story?

This article answers those questions by exploring some of the world’s largest producers before digging into the one that stands head and shoulder above the rest.

The Top 10 Wine Producing Companies

Before we dig into the leading wine producer in terms of volume and profit, let’s quickly run down a list of the top 10 in the world.

10. The Wine Group

From its base in California, The Wine Group controls about 1.5% of the share of the world’s wine industry. However, its sales reflect the quality of the wines it produces, coming in at about $190 million. Aggressive expansion accounts for some of this low profitability, though this is also a producer that is best known for table wines.

9. Fecovita Co-Op

One of the world’s largest South American winemakers, Fecovita is based in Argentina and generates about $280 million in sales per year. As the name implies, it’s a collective of producers based in the Mendoza region and it accounts for about 1% of global wine sales. Fecovita is an innovative company that is always looking towards new technologies.

8. Grupo Penaflor

Another Argentinian company, Grupo Penaflor generates nearly $400 million in sales every year. The company specializes in recognizing and funding talented winemakers, leading to its wines tending to develop a good reputation in the wider wine industry.

7. Treasury Wine Estate

We move to Australia for the seventh-largest wine-producing company. From its base in Melbourne, Treasury produces about 1.2% of the world’s wine supply. Expansion is key to this, as the company owns vineyards in California, South America, Europe, and Asia. It’s now part of the massive Fosters Brewing Group.

6. Accolade Wines

We’re staying in Australia for our next company. Accolade generates over half a billion dollars in sales every year, despite producing less than 1% of the world’s wine supply. Many of its wines are branded under the famous Thomas Hardy label and are especially popular in the United Kingdom.

5. Vina Concha Y Toro

We return to South America with this company, though we head to Chile this time. Vina Concha Y Toro has benefitted massively from the increased popularity of Chilean wines and now produces a little over 1% of the world’s wine. Its ties to Spanish and Chilean nobility also lend its wines a level of respect that many other Chilean producers don’t enjoy.

4. Constellation Brands

From its base in New York, Constellation manages over 100 brands covering wine, beer, and spirits. It currently produces about 1.7% of the world’s wine and achieves annual sales of $8.6 billion. With over 9,000 workers, Constellation is also one of the largest employers in the wine industry.

3. Pernod Richard

A French company, Pernod Richard is known for two things – the creation of Pernod and the Jacob’s Creek brand. It’s based in Paris and specialises in making affordable Champagnes. The success of this approach leads to about $9 billion in annual sales.

2. Castel Freres

This French wine producer is based in Bordeaux and generates nearly $16 billion in revenue each year. It produces about 1% of the world’s wines and is often referred to as the biggest representative of Bordeaux wines.

And Number One is… E J Gallo

E J Gallo is a massive wine company based in Belgium.

That likely comes as a surprise to you for two reasons. First, Belgium isn’t known to have a large wine industry, certainly not on the scale of Italy, France, or Spain. Second, after going through that list you’ll see that no individual Italian wine company has made it into the top 10 despite Italy being the world’s leading producer of wine overall. That just goes to show how many producers are in the country and how much variety is available in Italian wines.

But back to E J Gallo.

The company currently supplies about 35 billion bottles of wine per year, making it responsible for 3% of the industry. It also dwarfs its competitors when it comes to sales, with E J Gallo selling an astonishing $50 billion of wine per year.

Despite being based in Belgium, the company was founded in California and now has a large foothold in Napa Valley. It also owns 75 subsidiary wine companies, such as Barefoot Wine, in addition to funding a lot of independent companies. That willingness to work with others is a big reason why the company has managed to grow to its current size.

Gallo is also partly responsible for the development of the Code of Sustainable Wide Growing Practices, making it an important company in terms of conservation efforts that affect the global wine industry.

The Final Word

So, the world’s largest wine-producing country doesn’t play host to the world’s largest company. In fact, it doesn’t even come close to scratching the top 10, which is extremely interesting given how much wine comes out of Italy each year.

As mentioned, this is mostly accounted for by the fact that Italy has a massive number of producers. What’s more, many of those producers either prefer to act independently, meaning they’ll never grow to the levels of those mentioned in this article, or they’re part of cooperatives themselves.

Another thing this list shows us is that American producers are very focused on growth. Many of the companies on this list trace their roots to the United States. However, it’s also interesting to see several South American and Australian companies making the list. That’s good for the global wine industry as it shows that these countries with newer wine industries can compete with more established countries.

Now that you know the world’s largest producers, it’s time to find some of their wines. With a little searching, you’re sure to find wines from each of these companies on the Xtrawine website.