Fresh figures released this week from the OIV, published by newspaper Diário de Notícias, show that, on average, in Portugal each person drinks 51.4 litres of wine per year, or the equivalent of 72 bottles.
That figure is more than double the amount consumed in Spain, where despite being a world leader in terms of wine exports, it lags far behind when it comes to drinking it, at 25 litres per person per year.
Globally, the International Organisation of Vine and Wine reveals, consumption in 2017 stood at 243 million hectolitres (a metric unit of capacity equal to one hundred litres), which was up one million on the previous year.
In terms of consumption, the United States is the world’s biggest wine-drinker, leading the way with 32.6 million hectolitres, followed by France at 27 million, Italy with 22.6 million and Germany with 20.2 million hectolitres.
Portugal last year glugged 4.5 million hectolitres of wine.
But while global wine consumption has increased, world production has declined.
In 2017, 250 million hectolitres of wine were produced, which is 8.6 percent less than in the previous year. The OIV says the reduction is due to “adverse weather conditions”.
Italy, France, Spain and the USA collectively produced about half of the entire world’s wine last year.
Production-wise, Italy tops the list with a total of 42.5 million hectolitres; Portugal occupies 11th spot, with production of 6.6 million hectolitres of wine in 2017.