Most Planted Grapes in the World (and the Famous Ones)

What Is the Most Planted Grape in the World?

Kyohō, a table grape, is the most planted grape in the world, at 365,000 hectares in the OIV's figures for 2015. Among wine grapes, Cabernet Sauvignon leads at 340,000 hectares. Chardonnay is now the most planted white wine grape. None of these rankings measures quality, so the famous grapes form a separate list.

Question	Answer	Area (OIV, 2015 data)	What to do with it
Most planted grape of any kind	Kyohō, a table grape	365,000 ha	Eat it; it is grown for the fruit bowl
Most planted wine grape	Cabernet Sauvignon	340,000 ha	Use it as your first reference red
Most planted white wine grape	Chardonnay (Airén led in older surveys)	210,000 ha	Taste one oaked and one unoaked
Most famous or best grapes	The six noble grapes	Not measured by area	Learn these first, starting with Cabernet and Pinot Noir

Quick check

One question on what you just read

Which wine grape covers the most vineyard land in the world?

AChardonnayBCabernet SauvignonCMerlot

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The Top 10 Most Planted Wine Grapes, Ranked

Leave out the table and raisin grapes and the OIV's 2015 figures give this order: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Tempranillo, Airén, Chardonnay, Syrah, Grenache, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir and Ugni Blanc. Six are red and four are white grapes. The last three sit within 12,000 hectares of each other, so their order can swap between surveys.

Rank	Grape	Colour	Hectares	Why it covers so much land	Look for on a label
1	Cabernet Sauvignon	Red	340,000	Thick skins resist rot; ripens in most warm regions	Cabernet Sauvignon; Left Bank Bordeaux such as Médoc
2	Merlot	Red	266,000	Ripens earlier and softer than Cabernet; Bordeaux's main blending grape	Merlot; Saint-Émilion, Pomerol
3	Tempranillo	Red	231,000	Carried by Spain's very large vineyard area	Rioja, Ribera del Duero
4	Airén	White	218,000	Survives drought in La Mancha; much of it is distilled	Rarely named; La Mancha white
5	Chardonnay	White	210,000	Grows in cool and warm climates, oaked or unoaked	Chablis, white Burgundy, Chardonnay
6	Syrah / Shiraz	Red	190,000	Rhône Valley, Australia and Spain	Syrah, Shiraz, Crozes-Hermitage
7	Grenache / Garnacha	Red	163,000	Handles heat and drought; a blending base	Côtes du Rhône, Garnacha, Cannonau
8	Sauvignon Blanc	White	123,000	Demand for the New Zealand style	Sancerre, Marlborough
9	Pinot Noir	Red	112,000	Thin skins and hard to grow, so plantings stay small	Red Burgundy, Pinot Noir
10	Ugni Blanc / Trebbiano	White	111,000	Base wine for Cognac and Armagnac	Trebbiano d'Abruzzo; mostly drunk as brandy

Which Grapes Beat Cabernet Sauvignon?

Kyohō, a table grape, beats it outright, and Sultanine, a raisin and table grape, ranks third. In the OIV's 2015 figures, Kyohō covers 365,000 hectares, 4.8% of the world's vineyard area, against 340,000 for Cabernet Sauvignon. Sultanine follows at about 273,000 hectares.

More than 90% of Kyohō grows in China, and it is eaten fresh. Sultanine, sold as Thompson Seedless in the United States, is a true all-rounder: the OIV lists it as a wine, dessert and raisin grape. Red Globe, a dessert grape, adds about 165,000 hectares and would sit ninth on a list of every grape.

That is why two headlines can both look right. One says Cabernet is the most planted grape in the world, and the other says a table grape is. If a ranking puts Cabernet first, it counts wine grapes only. If Kyohō or Sultanine appears, it counts every vine. The reasons a grocery grape makes thin wine come down to size, skin and sugar, covered in table grapes vs wine grapes.

What Are the Best Grapes in the World?

No survey measures "best", so there are three answers, one for each use. For wine, the grapes most courses teach first are the six noble grapes: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling. By land, Cabernet Sauvignon leads. For eating, the answer is a table grape such as Kyohō.

Famous vineyards grow a short list of grapes. The great sites of Burgundy grow Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. The classed estates of Bordeaux grow Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, and Napa Valley's best-known sites are mostly Cabernet. Rioja and Ribera del Duero rest on Tempranillo.

So fame and area agree at the top of the table: four of those five famous grapes rank in the top five by hectares. They part ways lower down, where Airén and Ugni Blanc outrank Pinot Noir. If you want the grapes most worth learning first, start with the six noble grapes, then branch out through the grape varieties hub.

The Red Grapes That Lead the List

Reds hold six of the ten places, and the top three alone cover 837,000 hectares.

1. Cabernet Sauvignon (340,000 ha)

Cabernet Sauvignon makes deep-coloured, full-bodied reds with firm tannin (the drying grip on your gums). It smells of blackcurrant and black cherry, with cedar from oak barrels. Thick skins resist rot, and the grape tastes like itself from Bordeaux to Napa to China's Ningxia region. That reliability made it the default choice for new vineyards. The Cabernet Sauvignon wine guide covers its styles.

2. Merlot (266,000 ha)

Merlot gives rounder reds with softer tannin, tasting of ripe plum and black cherry. It ripens earlier than Cabernet, which makes it the safer crop in cooler years. Bordeaux is its heartland: it leads on the Right Bank and softens Cabernet-led blends on the Left. The Merlot wine guide shows how far its styles range.

3. Tempranillo (231,000 ha)

Tempranillo ranks third almost entirely because of Spain. Wine Spectator reported in 2024 that it now covers more Spanish vineyard than Airén does. Young Tempranillo tastes of fresh cherry and strawberry; after years in oak it turns to leather and dried fig. The Tempranillo wine guide explains the Crianza and Reserva ageing words on the label.

6 and 7. Syrah and Grenache

Syrah is the same grape Australians call Shiraz. It makes dark, peppery reds and grows widely in the Rhône Valley, Australia and Spain. Grenache (Garnacha in Spain, Cannonau in Sardinia) gives softer tannin and higher alcohol because it ripens fully in hot, dry places. It anchors southern Rhône blends, and the Grenache wine guide follows it from Spain to France.

Which White Grape Is Planted the Most?

Chardonnay is now the most planted white wine grape, according to Wine Spectator in 2024, drawing on University of Adelaide vineyard data. Airén held the title in older surveys. In the OIV's 2015 figures the gap was already tiny: Airén at 218,000 hectares, Chardonnay at 210,000. With Spain replanting toward Tempranillo, Chardonnay has moved ahead.

Airén: The Giant Few Have Tasted

Airén grows almost entirely on the hot, dry plains of La Mancha in central Spain. It tolerates drought and gives big crops, and the OIV classes it as a wine and distillation grape. Much of it has gone into Spanish brandy and bulk wine. Made carefully, it gives a clean, light white with a lemony edge, but its name rarely reaches a label.

Chardonnay: Two Wines in One Grape

Chardonnay grows on every wine continent because it adapts to cool and warm climates alike. Fermented in steel, as in Chablis, it tastes of lemon and green apple with high acidity (the tartness that makes your mouth water). Fermented in oak with malolactic conversion (a second fermentation that softens tart acid), it turns creamy and buttery. The Chardonnay wine guide maps that spectrum.

Sauvignon Blanc and Ugni Blanc

Sauvignon Blanc (123,000 hectares) smells of grapefruit and cut grass, with high acidity. Its plantings grew on the back of the New Zealand style. Ugni Blanc, called Trebbiano in Italy, covers 111,000 hectares. In France it is the main base wine for Cognac and Armagnac, brandies distilled from tart, low-alcohol white wine. In Italy it makes everyday whites, as the Trebbiano wine guide explains.

Why Does "Most Planted" Never Mean "Most Famous"?

Area measures where vines stand, while fame follows the wine in the glass. A grape can cover vast ground because it is distilled, blended or simply survives drought. A revered grape can stay small because it is hard to grow and gives low crops.

Airén and Ugni Blanc cover more than 300,000 hectares between them, yet most wine drinkers have never knowingly tasted either one.

Four forces push a grape up the area ranking:

• Distillation. Airén feeds Spanish brandy; Ugni Blanc feeds Cognac and Armagnac.
• Blending. Grenache and Merlot often fill out blends without a name on the front label.
• Survival. Airén's drought tolerance keeps it on dry plains where little else grows well.
• One big country. Tempranillo's rank rests on Spain's vineyard area.

Pinot Noir shows the reverse. At 112,000 hectares it is ninth, behind a brandy grape. Its thin skins rot easily and it needs a cool climate, which keeps plantings to places like Burgundy and Oregon. Its pale, light-bodied reds taste of red cherry and raspberry and fetch high prices from a small footprint. The Pinot Noir guide explains how to taste it.

How Accurate Are Grape Planting Rankings?

Treat them as a snapshot. About 10,000 grape varieties are known, yet 13 of them cover one third of the world's vineyard area and 33 cover half, according to the OIV. Its variety report uses 2015 figures, published in 2017, so small gaps between neighbours can close by the next count.

Four things make sources disagree:

• Area measures land. A high-yielding grape fills more tanks per hectare than a low-yielding one.
• What counts as a wine grape. Some surveys include table and raisin grapes, which lifts Kyohō and Sultanine.
• Survey timing. A figure published this year may come from a census several years older.
• Replanting. Growers pull unfashionable vines, as Spain has done with Airén.

If two sources disagree by a few thousand hectares, trust the order of the top five and the round numbers. The exact hectare count to the digit is the least reliable part of any list.

How to Taste the Top of the List Tonight

Pour the most planted wine grape next to the most famous small one: a Cabernet Sauvignon beside a Pinot Noir. Sip each and notice where the dryness lands. Cabernet's tannin grips your gums and cheeks; Pinot Noir's barely registers, while its acidity makes your mouth water. Those are the tannin, acidity and body cues that let you compare any two reds.

Then repeat with an unoaked Chablis and an oaked Chardonnay to taste one grape in two styles. A repeatable method for tasting wine keeps the comparison fair. In the Sommy app, you can photograph each label and be walked through look, smell and taste, with your notes saved to a tasting journal. Open both bottles side by side tonight and write one line on each.

Sources

1. Distribution of the World's Grapevine Varieties (Focus, 2015 data) — International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV), 2017
2. 13 grape varieties cover one third of global vineyard acreage — Vitisphere, 2018
3. In 2024, what's the most widely planted white wine grape in the world? — Wine Spectator, 2024
4. Wine Grapes: A Complete Guide to 1,368 Vine Varieties — Jancis Robinson, Julia Harding, José Vouillamoz, 2012