Spanish wineries led the world’s exportation of the red stuff in 2017 with sales of 22.8 million hectolitres, according to data released by the Spanish Observatory of Wine Markets.

This puts the country ahead of its main competitors Italy (21 million hectolitres) and France (15 million hectolitres).

However, for all the wine trickling out of the country, Spain only made €2,850 million in revenue, whereas France brought home over triple this figure (€9,000 million) and Italy billed over double (€6,000 million).

This is because Spain sells its produce very cheaply at 1.25 per litre, compared to France’s €6 per litre and Italy’s €2.78.

In fact, Spain sells its wine off the cheapest of almost any country, with only South African wines sold at a lower price (1.23 per litre), and lower even than wineries further afield, such as Australia (€3.1 per litre) or Chile (1.89 per litre).

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