In 2025, the global wine sector continued to adapt to changing consumption habits, lower production volumes, trade uncertainty and ongoing transport disruption. According to the latest report from the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV), global wine exports declined by 4.7% while world wine consumption fell by 2.7%. At the same time, climate variability continued to affect vineyard productivity across many major producing regions.
For wine importers, distributors and producers, 2025 reinforced the importance of visibility, flexibility and forward planning. While some mature markets slowed, other regions continued to show resilience and create new opportunities for international trade.
Hillebrand Gori’s own trade lane analysis also reflected this mixed market environment. Some established European and North American wine flows softened during the year, while selected regional and bulk wine corridors remained more resilient as supply chains adjusted to changing demand patterns.
Global wine production reached an estimated 227 million hectolitres in 2025, remaining close to the historically low levels recorded in 2024. This marked the third consecutive year of lower-than-average production globally.
Climatic variability remained one of the biggest factors shaping the market. Drought, excessive rainfall, heatwaves and frost affected vineyards across Europe, North America and South America.
France recorded another low harvest, remaining around 16% below its five-year average, while Spain experienced another challenging year due to drought and heatwaves. Italy remained one of the more stable major producers, supported by more balanced growing conditions.
Outside Europe, South Africa, Brazil and New Zealand recorded stronger recoveries following weaker 2024 vintages. Brazil saw one of the largest production rebounds globally, increasing production by more than 80% compared to 2024.
Despite lower production volumes globally, the market did not experience widespread shortages. Instead, reduced output helped ease stock pressure across several producing regions after softer demand conditions in recent years.
World wine consumption fell to an estimated 208 million hectolitres in 2025, continuing the downward trend observed since 2018.
The OIV highlighted several contributing factors:
The USA remained the world’s largest wine market, although consumption declined by 4.3% during the year. France, Italy, Germany and the UK also recorded lower consumption levels.
However, not every market moved in the same direction.
Portugal reached record consumption levels in 2025, while Brazil and Japan also demonstrated resilience. Brazil recorded one of the strongest increases globally, with consumption rising by more than 40% compared to 2024.
These shifts continue to influence international wine trade patterns. For importers and distributors, this means transport planning increasingly needs to align with changing regional demand rather than relying only on historic consumption trends.
International wine trade remained highly globalised in 2025, with nearly one bottle in two consumed outside its country of origin.
At the same time, international trade slowed under the combined pressure of softer demand, tariff uncertainty and changing transport conditions.
Global wine export volumes declined by 4.7% in 2025, while export value fell by 6.7%. Bottled wine remained the largest export category, representing more than half of global trade volumes and over 66% of export value. Bulk wine continued to represent around one-third of global export volumes.
Hillebrand Gori trade lane analysis reflected many of these broader market conditions.
Several traditional wine corridors into North America recorded softer flows during the year, particularly for cased wine movements. Some European intra-regional bulk wine routes showed greater resilience, while selected UK import flows remained comparatively stable despite wider market pressure.
This aligns with wider industry behaviour seen throughout 2025:
Transport disruption continued to affect global beverage supply chains throughout 2025 and into 2026.
Port congestion, longer transit times, fuel price volatility and geopolitical disruption all contributed to reduced schedule reliability across major ocean freight networks.
At the same time, the ongoing disruption around the Red Sea and the Strait of Hormuz continued to affect global vessel routing and effective capacity. Read more about the Middle East disruption here.
For wine importers, this created several operational challenges:
As a result, many wine businesses placed greater emphasis on visibility and proactive planning.
Digital tools such as myHillebrandGori helped importers and distributors monitor shipments, inventory and milestone updates more closely throughout the journey. The platform supports shipment visibility, routing updates, documentation management and inventory monitoring through one connected system.
The wine market entering 2026 remains complex but manageable for businesses with strong planning processes and flexible transport strategies.
Several trends are likely to continue:
At the same time, global wine trade remains highly internationalised and resilient. Even with lower consumption and production volumes, international wine movements continue to play a central role in balancing supply and demand between regions.
For importers and distributors, the priority increasingly becomes agility rather than scale alone. Businesses that can adapt routing strategies, manage inventory carefully and maintain visibility across transport networks may be better positioned to respond to changing market conditions.
Read more about the latest ocean freight conditions in our State of the Industry report.
As a logistics partner specialised in wine, beer and spirits, Hillebrand Gori supports importers, producers and distributors with transport solutions designed for reliability, visibility and flexibility.
From ocean freight consolidation and bulk wine transport to temperature protection, digital visibility and lower-emission transport solutions, every service is designed to help make beverage logistics easier in changing market conditions.
Explore more insights in the Hillebrand Gori Knowledge Centre and latest articles on the Hillebrand Gori blog.
