Reality check: China did NOT overtake France as a winegrowing region

Social media is abuzz with news that China has overtaken France as a winegrowing region and is now second only to Spain. It comes in large part from this BBC report that cites International Organization of Vine and Wine (OIV) statistics. The BBC headline — “China overtakes France in vineyards” — might well be accurate. The problem is with the first sentence: “The International Organisation of Vine and Wine (IOVW) said China now had 799,000 hectares (1.97 million acres) of land devoted to winegrowing.”