Grapes: from the Caucasus to the present day (Part 1 of 2)
On two hills south of Tbilisi, in what is now Georgia, Neolithic farmers buried several clay jars in the ground to keep them cool. Thousands of years later, those jars would rewrite the history of one of humanity’s longest relationships with a fruit.
It was 2017 when a team led by archaeologist Stephen Batiuk, of the University of Toronto, analyzed pottery fragments found at the Neolithic sites of Gadachrili Gora and Shulaveris Gora. In the residues, they found tartaric acid — the chemical signature of grapes — alongside malic, succinic and citric acid. The dating placed those jars around 6000 BC: roughly 8,000 years old, some 600 to 1,000 years earlier than what had previously been accepted as the earliest known origin of wine. The finding, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, established the Caucasus as the documented cradle of viticulture.
It probably all began by accident: grapes stored in a jar, wild yeasts resting on their skins, some warmth, and enough time for fermentation to do the rest. From that happy accident grew an industry that today moves entire continents, sustains family traditions — like eating twelve grapes at midnight on New Year’s Eve in Spain — and supports the economy of thousands of wine-growing towns.
From Mesopotamia to your fruit bowl
An eight-thousand-year journey, told in milestones
Around 6000 BC — The earliest chemical evidence of winemaking appears in the Caucasus (present-day Georgia), where Neolithic communities were already domesticating the wild grapevine Vitis vinifera specifically to make wine.
Mesopotamia and Egypt — Grapevine cultivation spreads south. Making wine and beer takes on central economic, religious and social importance in these ancient civilizations.
3rd millennium BC — The Iberian Peninsula already has its own vineyards, even before the arrival of the Phoenicians, who would later drive the wine trade across the Mediterranean.
Bronze Age onward — Grapevine cultivation spreads from Eastern Europe across the rest of the continent. The word “wine” itself travels from language to language as a shared term among cultures, what linguists call a wanderwort.
Today — Close to 5,000 different varieties of Vitis vinifera are grown around the world. The grape has become the fruit crop with the highest total economic value on the planet.
Here’s a curious fact rarely told: in Spain, the Aledo variety — grown in the Vinalopó valleys of Alicante and protected by its own Denomination of Origin — is the star of a very specific tradition. Its firm-skinned, late-ripening bunches are the ones hand-bagged in the vineyard so they arrive in perfect condition for the New Year’s Eve countdown.
How much grape the world produces
Global production: figures, leaders, and a trend worth watching
- 74,7 M t — world grape production in 2023
- 7,5 % — of all fruit produced worldwide
- 22 % — of world production comes from China
According to data compiled by the FAO and the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV), world grape production reached 74.7 million tonnes in 2023, down 6.7% from 80.1 million the previous year. It was a notable break in a growth trend that had held steady since 2000, attributed largely to extreme weather events linked to climate change. The FAO also ranks the grape as the fruit crop with the highest total production value in the world, far outweighing what its volume — 7.5% of all fruit produced globally — would suggest.
Production by country, 2024 season (million tonnes):
| Country | Production |
| China | 16,3 M t |
| India | 3,9 M t |
| Turkey | 5 M t |
| Chile | 2,5 M t |
| Argentina | 1,9 M t |
| South Africa | 1,9 M t |
China now accounts for roughly 22% of the world total, having overtaken Italy — the leader back in 1999 — for the top spot.
Beyond wine, the OIV distinguishes two other major uses for grapes: table grapes and dried grapes. Its 2024 statistical report on wine, table grapes and dried grapes puts world production of non-pressed grapes at 38.5 million tonnes, of which 33.3 million tonnes are fresh table grapes and 5.2 million become raisins. Meanwhile, world wine production stood at around 225.8 million hectoliters in 2024, the lowest figure in more than sixty years and 4.8% below 2023 — a decline the OIV attributes to extreme weather events and vineyard removal in major producing regions. For 2025, the organization is already working with an early estimate of between 228 and 235 million hectoliters, which would point to a recovery of roughly 3%.
Grapes in Spain
Spain operates on two tracks. As a wine-producing country, its 2024 harvest came in at around 5 million tonnes of wine grapes, with a rise in white grape output pushing white wine production up 21% year on year. In Andalusia, for example, the wine-grape harvest held steady at 110,981 tonnes, with Protected Designations of Origin accounting for 64% of the planted area and around 78% of the region’s wine output.
As a table grape producer, Spain holds a leading position within the European Union, behind Italy — with roughly one million tonnes — and ahead of Greece (273,000 t in 2024) and France (47,000 t). According to the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food’s area and production forecast, 14,865 hectares of table grapes were grown in Spain in 2024, yielding 363,963 tonnes at an average of 24.49 tonnes per hectare. That year’s exports reached 167,245 tonnes worth €448 million, despite a 9% drop in volume compared with 2023. Murcia, the Valencian Community, Catalonia and Andalusia account for most of that production and those exports.
Interesting fact:
French ampelographer Pierre Galet, considered the father of this discipline (the science of identifying vine varieties by their leaves, bunches and shoots), documented thousands of different varieties throughout his career.
The world's most important genetic vine collection, located in France, currently preserves around 5,000 vine variants from 35 countries, of which about 3,500 are fully identified genetically.
From an accident in a Neolithic jar to 75 million tonnes split between wine, table grapes and raisins: the grape has traveled a long road without ever really changing what it is at its core. What has changed is the scale of the business built around it, and the uses we find for it once it leaves the vineyard.
Explore more of our products here.
