French Wine Production Growing By 13 Percent

It's a good sign to see France's wine regions rebounding: new reports show that wine production in France has grown by 13 percent in the last year. 

That's a huge jump from its record lows fom the year before, Bloomberg reports. In 2012, output of wines could reach 46.6 million hectoliters (1.2 billion gallons) from 41.4 million hectoliters, according to a release from the Agriculture Ministry. It's the regions that have been the hardest hit in recent years, thanks to flooding and formidable weather, that are showing the most promising growth. The Champagne region is expected to put out 24 million hectoliters from 1.98 million last year, Burgundy and Beaujolais wine volume is predicted to reach 2.31 million hectoliters, and Bordeaux, the country's biggest producer, is expected to reach 5.72 million hectoliters. 

Of course, the ministry has warned that nothing is for sure until the flowering and fruit set of the vines, which occurs occurs from the spring through June in some regions. Still, it's promising for the country; wine production was 10 percent lower than predicted last year, at 46.7 million hectoliters.