Is Wine Consumption Really Going Down? Myth vs Fact

Is Wine Consumption Really Going Down?

Everyone in wine has an opinion on this one. Ask five people in the industry and you will get five different answers. So let’s skip the clickbait headlines and dig into what the numbers say…

✅ The headline number is real.

Global wine consumption fell 2.7% in 2025 to 208 million hectolitres, according to the International Organisation of Vine and Wine — the fourth year of decline in a row and global consumption has dropped by around 14 percent since 2018.

Nine of the world’s ten largest wine markets saw demand fall last year. It’s not one country or region having a bad year. It’s global and it’s sustained.

❌ What most news coverage gets wrong: they equate “less wine” and “less interest in wine.”

The wine businesses currently thriving are those that are leaning into higher pricing tiers, tasting rooms, and wine clubs, while simplifying their range and reducing reliance on any single retailer. Translation: people didn’t stop consuming wine. Wine drinkers have simply become more selective about what earns a place in their glass.

Even as volumes drop, prices have stayed firm - average export prices are sitting close to record highs and well above pre-pandemic levels. People are paying more per bottle while buying fewer bottles overall.

So, there is a concerted shift in wine consumption from quantity to quality. Fewer glasses, but chosen more carefully.

What is actually driving the drop?

A few things, layered on top of each other.

• Global wave of sober-curious, health-conscious drinkers.
• In general, younger drinkers are moderating earlier in life than previous generations did.
• Cost of living pressure has shrunk budgets for booze.
• There are now lots of non-alcoholic and low-alcohol alternatives.
  

None of these factors mean wine is losing its appeal. It just means that people drinking with more intention. Fewer occasions, chosen deliberately, rather than wine as background noise to every dinner and every Friday night.

Why this is actually good news for how you drink

If the era of drinking wine by the case out of habit is fading, what is replacing it is a more curious, more selective relationship with what ends up in the glass. People are asking better questions. What actually suits my palate. What is worth the occasion. What do I want to remember about this bottle.

That is exactly the shift Gioia was built for. When every bottle is chosen more carefully, a match score that reflects your palate and nobody else’s stops being a nice extra. It becomes the whole point. Crowd averages were always a poor guide to what you personally enjoy. In a market where people are buying less but choosing more deliberately, that gap matters more, not less.

The real answer:

So, is wine consumption really going down. Yes, genuinely, measurably yes.

Is wine itself becoming less loved. That is a much harder case to make. The story underneath the headline is not one of a category in decline. It is one of a category maturing, where fewer bottles are opened but more thought goes into each one.

Rate honestly, drink deliberately, and let Gioia handle the guesswork on which bottle earns its place.

Gioia is available now on iOS and Android. Start building your palate profile atgioia.wine.