(WBlakeGray) - European wine producers receive government support, and I'm all for that. I wish American wine producers got more support from our government, rather than all our agricultural subsidies going to rich landholders to not grow grain. 

However, the question is, which countries should get the most EU support? 

My guess would have been three countries that make great wine but have been in economic crisis for years: Greece, Portugal and Spain. Wrong.

A new study published in the Journal of Wine Economics shows that just as in the US, the rich EU countries get the subsidies. Of course they do.

The study, by Kym Anderson of University of Adelaide and Hans G. Jensen of University of Copenhagen, adds up government support from different areas, starting with money paid directly to vintners but also including several types of subsidy that have not been included in official OECD reports.

These additional supports include subsidies for distillation of low-quality wine, non-product-specific support for rural farm regions, and tariffs on imports from non-EU countries that support domestic prices. Adding in these factors more than doubles the amount of EU support that the OECD counts.