French dismiss Italy’s claim to produce world’s best wine

The French president Francois Hollande has entered into a spat with his Italian counterpart after Matteo Renzi claimed his nation’s wines were the best in the world.

Francois Hollande (left) with Matteo Renzi. Hollande said French wines were superior to Italy’s offering as they were “more expensive” (Photo: Wiki)

Mr Renzi, the Italian prime minister, said Italy now deserves the title of the world’s top producer of fine wines.

Mr Hollande responded to the Italian prime minister’s boasts at a recent meeting by saying that French wines were “more expensive”.

The Italian premier made the claim at the Vinitaly wine fair as he shared a stage with Asian businessman Jack Ma, the founder of online retail giant Alibaba, as the pair announced a joint effort to promote Italian wine in China.

Ma said that Italian wine could soon account for 60% of all of his website’s wine sales in Asia, compared to just 6% now.

“Chinese people have a passion for all things Italian. Alibaba wants to be the gateway to China for Italian brands and small businesses”, Ma said.

Italy is the world’s largest wine producer, making 48.9 million hectolitres in 2015.