Where Does Your Wine Come From? EU Grape Harvests Explained (2024 Data)

From Bottle to Vine: the Harvest Behind EU Wine

Every bottle of European wine starts in a vineyard, and the crop grown there is grapes — not wine. Eurostat tracks the EU's harvest of grapes for wines (crop code W1100) in tonnes, not by vintage or bottle. In 2024 the EU-27 harvested 20.47 million tonnes (20 474.54 thousand tonnes) of wine grapes, down from 23.35 million tonnes (23 351.9 thousand tonnes) in 2015 — a net fall of 12.3%, or about -1.5% a year. It was the smallest wine-grape harvest of the decade.

The ten years were not a straight line. Output averaged 22.78 million tonnes (22 783.4 thousand tonnes) across 2015-2024 and varied with a coefficient of variation (CV) of 6.7%, from a 2018 peak of 25.65 million tonnes (25 654.29 thousand tonnes) down to the 2024 low. The two smallest harvests of the decade came back to back, in 2023 (20.91 million tonnes) and 2024 — the supply backdrop for anyone buying, blending or pricing grapes and grape products.

Land tells a different story from output. The EU harvested 3 008.7 thousand hectares of vineyards for wine grapes in 2015 and 2 905.99 thousand hectares in 2024, a fall of only 3.4%. Because area shrank more slowly than tonnage, the implied average yield also slipped: 7.76 tonnes per hectare in 2015 against 7.05 in 2024. Eurostat publishes no yield indicator for grapes, so these figures are production divided by harvested area.

The Big Three: Italy, Spain and France

Italy grows almost a third of the EU's wine grapes: 6.61 million tonnes (6 610.19 thousand tonnes) in 2024, a 32.3% share. Spain follows with 5.02 million tonnes (5 021.89 thousand tonnes, 24.5%) and France with 4.70 million tonnes (4 699.9 thousand tonnes, 23.0%). Together the three grew 79.8% of the EU harvest — 16 331.98 thousand tonnes.

Italy and France alone account for 55.2% of EU wine-grape output (11 310.09 thousand tonnes), yet their paths diverged over the decade: France's harvest fell 24.4% (from 6 212.82 to 4 699.9 thousand tonnes) while Italy's slipped just 3.3% (6 836.0 to 6 610.19). In 2024 Spain moved ahead of France into second place. France's share fell from 26.6% to 23.0%, Spain's rose from 23.7% to 24.5% and Italy's from 29.3% to 32.3%.

Germany is a distant but steady fourth: 1.06 million tonnes (1 059.77 thousand tonnes, 5.2%), varying with a CV of 8.5% — steadier than Spain (11.2%) and France (9.8%). Portugal follows with 903.51 thousand tonnes (4.4%), and its 1.4% decline over the decade is the smallest of any large producer.

PDO Grapes: the Premium Half of the Harvest

PDO stands for protected designation of origin, an EU quality label for wines whose grapes must come from a defined region and follow specified production rules. Eurostat tracks those grapes separately (crop code W1110), and in 2024 they reached 9 926.8 thousand tonnes — 48.5% of all EU wine grapes, against 11 282.7 thousand tonnes in 2023 (54.0% of the harvest). The EU-level PDO aggregate is published only for 2023 and 2024; per-country PDO series begin in 2015/2016, so a full ten-year comparison of the labelled segment is not possible.

Within the PDO segment the race is close: Italy 3 101.32 thousand tonnes (31.2% of the EU PDO total) against France 3 034.19 thousand tonnes (30.6%) — a gap of just 67.13 thousand tonnes. Spain is third with 1 607.44 thousand tonnes (16.2%), followed by Germany (988.82, 10.0%), Portugal (509.78, 5.1%) and Austria (234.19, 2.4%).

For winemakers, the PDO share is the clearest signal of quality-led production: roughly half of the EU's grape tonnage grows under a protected designation. In 2024 the PDO total fell further than the overall harvest — from 11 282.7 to 9 926.8 thousand tonnes, a drop of 12.0%, while the whole harvest gave up 2.1%. Its share of EU wine grapes slipped from 54.0% to 48.5%.

The Decade Trend: a Slow Contraction

Across the full 2015-2024 window the EU wine-grape harvest contracted 12.3%, a compound annual rate of -1.5%. The decline is spread unevenly. France lost the most in absolute terms, from 6 212.82 to 4 699.9 thousand tonnes (-24.4%), and Greece fell 24.8% (605.66 to 455.36 thousand tonnes). Hungary (-18.8%), Germany (-11.6%) and Romania (-11.2%) also shrank faster than the EU average.

Italy (-3.3%, from 6 836.0 to 6 610.19 thousand tonnes) and Portugal (-1.4%, from 916.05 to 903.51) are the exceptions: Portugal is the only large producer whose output was essentially unchanged over the decade. Spain, the second-largest producer, lost 9.1% (5 527.1 to 5 021.89 thousand tonnes) — less than France or Greece, which is how it moved ahead of France in the 2024 ranking.

The contraction is not mainly a story about land. Harvested vineyard area fell only 3.4% between 2015 and 2024, from 3 008.7 to 2 905.99 thousand hectares, so the larger part of the tonnage decline came from weaker average yields in difficult seasons — the year-to-year swings visible in the 6.7% CV. The dataset records that pattern; it does not explain the causes.

Table Grapes, Wine Regions and What It Means

Not all EU grapes are destined for wine. Table grapes (crop code W1200) are a separate, smaller crop: 1.70 million tonnes (1 697.72 thousand tonnes) in 2024, up 15.2% on 2015 (1 473.5 thousand tonnes) and much steadier than wine grapes over the decade, with a CV of 6.9%. Italy dominates here too — 1 002.69 thousand tonnes, or 59.1% of EU table grapes — ahead of Spain (363.99, 21.4%) and Greece (210.76, 12.4%).

For wine regions, the decade's data describes a slow restructuring: about 102.7 thousand hectares of wine-grape vineyard left production between 2015 and 2024 (from 3 008.7 to 2 905.99), while tonnage fell faster than area. Production is also concentrated: Italy, Spain and France grow 79.8% of EU wine grapes, and the three largest PDO producers hold 78.0% of the labelled segment.

What this means for buyers is mostly a supply-side signal: 2024 was the smallest EU wine-grape harvest of the decade, and the PDO segment shrank with it. For shoppers, the vineyard base behind a bottle is more concentrated than a decade ago — three countries grow roughly four fifths of the grapes — and the 2024 season was a lean one for European vineyards as a whole.

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