BERN: Swiss people consumed around 264million liters of wine in 2014, which is less than 7.5million in 2013 a drop of 2.8% due to poor harvest.
Wine consumption has been dwindling in Switzerland for years, although 2013 saw a one-off rise. While total white wine consumption (domestic and imported) fell 1.7% last year, total red wine consumption fell 3.3%, according to figures released on Tuesday by the Federal Office for Agriculture.
One exception to this trend was sparkling wine: 17.8 million liters were knocked back, an increase of 5.2%. Consumption of Swiss red wine plummeted by 8.8%, with the consequence that for the first time more local white wine was drunk than red wine, although as usual more red wine was produced.
The poor performance of local wines had been expected following the weather-effected harvests of 2013 and 2014. In 2014 Swiss vineyards covered 14,835 hectares, fractionally less than the previous year. Of this, red grape varieties make up 58%.
