Just over 19 million acres of the world’s surface is planted with grape vines. The grape vine tolerates a fairly narrow climatic range. It needs a growing season long enough to complete the fruiting cycle and a period of winter cold enough to force the vine into dormancy. It needs certain amounts of warmth and daylight. It is a plant of temperate zones.

These conditions are found in the two bands between latitudes 30-degrees and 50-degrees north and south. Different varieties of grapes will produce wines with distinct flavor characteristics. Each wine producing country will have grapes that are suited to that country and region.