Americans were biggest wine consumers in 2013. The Americans have now become the biggest wine consumers in the world. Their consumption increased by +0.5% to 29.1 million hectolitres. This means that for the first time, in 2013, the US became a bigger consumer than France, despite the fact that the US market only displayed a slight increase compared to the previous year. Consumption in France fell significantly 6.9% at 28.1 million hectolitres, which explains why it has fallen into second place. The Italians are in third place but their consumption has also fallen by 3.7%, to 21.7 million hectolitres, followed by the Germans (+1.5%), to 20.3 million hectolitres. China is in fifth place with consumption of 16.8 million hectolitres (down 3.8%). Overall, wine consumption has continued to fall in Europe except in Portugal and the United Kingdom, where it has remained stable (4.6 million and 12.8 million hectolitres respectively) and in Germany where it increased slightly. Overall, the fall in wine consumption affected the whole world in 2013 except for major countries in South America; Argentina (+2.8%), Chile (+1.3%), Brazil (+1%) and in South Africa, Romania and Russia (+1%) and Germany (+1.5%). (IL)