Sour grapes: The world's supply of wine is running dry

A report has warned that the global consumer demand for wine is significantly outstripping supply.

12:46 31 October 2013

A research conducted by America’s Morgan Stanley financial services firm warned that the global consumer demand for wine is drastically outweighing supply.

The firm added that in 2012, the demand exceeded the supply by 300m cases in their report which uncovered "the deepest shortfall in over 40 years of records.”

The global production has started declining since it supply reached its peak in 2004. This is the time when supply was more than 600m more than the demand.

Analysts from Morgan Stanley, Tom Keirath and Crystal Wang, said that currently, wine consumption stands at about 3bn cases per year. They added that there are currently more than one million wine producers all over the world, which make 2.8bn cases year after year.

The authors said that since demand is outstripping supply, "inventories will likely be reduced as current consumption continues to be predominantly supplied by previous vintages.”

The report also said that France and US are the two largest consumers of wine (12per cent each) in the world.