Numbers in the world According to Union Internationale des Œnologues figures, around 15,000 winemakers who have undergone specific training in accordance with the charter of the Union Internationale des Œnologues are currently operating throughout the world. The Union Internationale des Œnologues represents 68% of these through the various national associations.

35% of the world's winemakers have decision-making and management responsibilities, 10% are freelance and the remainder carry out a variety of tasks.

The largest concentration of winemakers is to be found in the European Union, where 70% of the world's winemakers operate. The first training centres for winemakers were also European, and some of them date back to the 19th century.

A number of producing countries, especially the new world states such as Australia, South Africa and the USA, have winemakers trained in accordance with the standards laid down (it has been estimated that around 1,000 winemakers operate in the USA and Australia), but cannot be members of the Union Internationale des Œnologues, as they have no specific associations, even though there are federated bodies to which the sector operators belong, including merchants, businesses, winemakers and producers.

This is a restriction that the Union Internationale des Œnologues is studying and which it expects to resolve in the short term, by changing the rules of access while continuing to safeguard the individuality and specific training requirements of the winemaking specialist.The situation is different in the eastern European countries and China, where the problem is that some states have a number of different associations, whose objectives and members represented are often not clearly laid down.