Hungary reports challenging harvest despite optimistic official data

Despite positive OIV data for 2024 Hungarian wine production, industry insiders tell Sophie Arundel why they aren’t feeling so celebratory. The International Organisation of Vine and Wine’s (OIV) recently released statistics for global wine production highlighted Hungary, as well as Georgia, as one of the few bright spots in an otherwise challenging year globally. With production reportedly reaching 3 million hectolitres, a 19% increase from 2023, Hungary appeared to buck the global trend of declining outputs. However, Hungarian producers have painted a different picture, revealing a vintage marked by early harvests, fluctuating yields, and complex winemaking conditions. For context behind the unrepresentative data, the discrepancy in the recent wine production report essentially boils down to a classification error. The 3 million hectolitres of production provided to the OIV by the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture included ‘musts’, unfermented grape juice that may or may not be ...