China now has more vineyards than France

With 799,000 hectares — or 1.97 million acres — of land set aside for vineyards, China is now the No. 2 wine-growing area in the world.

Spain remains in first place with 1.02 million hectares, but China pushed France down to third place, the BBC reports. The International Organization of Vine and Wine said France still produces the most wine, 4.67 million hectoliters (mhl) a year, and brings in the most money from selling wine abroad (more than $8.4 billion).

The U.S. continues to consume the most wine in the world — 30.7 mhl, or 13 percent of all global wine produced in 2014 — followed by France and Italy. Overall, global wine consumption was down in 2014 by 2.4 mhl, to 240 mhl (6.34 billion gallons).

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