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Number of millions of acres of vineyards on the globe (for wine and table grapes) according to the new 2019 statistical report just out from the OIV (International Organization of Vine and Wine). Just 5 countries represent 50% of all the vineyards in the world: Spain with 13% of global vineyards; followed by China (12%), France (11%), Italy (9%), and Turkey (6%). World vineyard acreage has been on a decline since 2003.

The word sauvignon comes from the French words sauvage and vigne, meaning wild vine. What does wild refer to?

A. The fact that the variety predates the domestication of grape vines.

B. The fact that the variety belongs to the species Vitis sauvagea.

C. The wild and riotous way the vines grow.

D. The fact that wild animals love to eat grapes from this variety.

Sauvignon is a fitting name for a vine that, if left to its own devices, would grow with riotous abandon. Sauvignon blanc is a high vigor variety which can grow with almost jungle-like speed.

“He planned dinners, of enchanting aromatic foods that should be carried under the nose, snuffed and then thrown to the dogs … endless dinners, in which one could alternate flavour with flavour from sunset to dawn without satiety, while one breathed great draughts of the bouquet of old brandy.

— Vile Bodies (1930) by Evelyn Waugh, as quoted by Charles Spence in Gastrophysics: The New Science of Eating

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