Just Drinks reports that Cava sales fell again in 2025 as drought continued to squeeze supply, with international volumes down 18.7% to 113.9 million bottles and domestic sales also slipping. Total sales dropped to 190 million bottles, down 12.88% year on year, showing that Spain’s sparkling wine sector is still being shaped more by production limits than by a collapse in demand, even as producers try to protect value and premium positioning.
Simon Judge
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Marlborough Wine Industry Faces ‘Dire’ Years
Radio New Zealand is reporting on how an accountant has warned that Marlborough’s wine industry faces several “dire” years due to a persistent oversupply of wine and weakening global demand, which are driving down export values and forcing grape growers to cut production, reduce spending, and potentially mothball vines. He predicts many growers will make losses for several years, meaning no tax payments and wider economic impacts across the region, especially if property values fall without corresponding reductions in council rates. While industry representatives agree the sector is under pressure and must rebalance supply and demand, they remain cautiously optimistic about long-term prospects, noting continued international demand for New Zealand wine and a focus on harvesting only the highest-quality grapes to restore profitability over time.
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Italy About to Start Making Domestically Dealcoholised Wine
The Drinks Business reports that Italian producers are on the verge of being able to dealcoholise wine inside Italy, a notable shift after years in which they had to send wine to countries such as Germany and Belgium for processing. The change matters because producers quoted at ProWein said the old system added cost and unnecessary transport, so the reform could make Italy more competitive in low and no alcohol wine while also reducing the environmental burden of shipping wine abroad for treatment.
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Tokaj Appellation Rules Revised in Hungary
The Drinks Business reports that Hungary has formally revised the Tokaj PDO rulebook, removing several little used categories, splitting Szamorodni into separate dry and sweet wines, tightening sparkling wine rules and updating ageing, bottling and vineyard requirements. The stated aim is to simplify the appellation while clarifying production standards, with hand harvesting still preserved for speciality wines such as Aszú.
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Argentina’s Wine Consumption Hits a Record Low
Associated Press reports that Argentina’s wine industry is in its worst crisis for more than 15 years, with 2025 consumption down to 15.7 litres per person, 1,100 vineyards closed and exports down 6.8 per cent to their lowest volume since 2004. The report says producers are being squeezed by weaker household spending, inflation and tariffs, and are trying to respond with fresher, lighter styles and a stronger export push, even as Mendoza continues to celebrate wine’s cultural importance through its harvest festival.
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California Grape Crush Hits 30-Year Low
Wine-Searcher reports that California’s 2025 grape crush fell to 2.76 million tons, including 2.62 million tons of wine grapes, making it the smallest wine grape harvest since 1999 and the smallest overall grape harvest since 1994. The report frames that as unexpectedly good news for drinkers because lower grape prices may push better coastal fruit into more affordable wines, while also stressing the more worrying backdrop for agriculture, including acreage removals, climate strain, rising costs and a structural shift towards white grapes, which overtook red grapes in the 2025 harvest.
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Tesco Named Top UK Supermarket for Wine Selection
Food & Wine reports that Tesco has been named Outstanding Supermarket Wine Range at the 2026 IWSC National Drinks Retail Awards, after posting the highest press tasting scores among major supermarkets for a second straight year. The report says Tesco’s range runs to roughly 800 own-label wines, with nearly 100 in the premium Tesco Finest tier, and credits a buying team that includes Master of Wine Elizabeth Kelly plus long-running winery partnerships. For the UK trade and shoppers alike, it is another sign that supermarket wine remains a serious quality battleground, not just a volume game.
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Wine-Making Waste Helps Recycle Battery Metals
Chemical & Engineering News reports that researchers have found a way to use tartaric acid, a grape derived, wine industry by product, to separate cobalt and nickel during lithium ion battery recycling. The research matters beyond the cellar because the method is presented as simpler and more sustainable than conventional solvent based extraction, and the team says it recovered metals at high purity while cutting energy and chemical costs by roughly an order of magnitude.
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Essex Police Seize 67,000 Bottles of Fake Wine
The UK Food Standards Agency reports that its National Food Crime Unit, working with the Metropolitan Police and other partners, has seized more than 67,000 bottles of counterfeit or misrepresented wine and Prosecco, worth about £500,000, from three warehouses in North London and Essex. The FSA says a 61 year old man was arrested on 3 March on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and later released under investigation, with enquiries still continuing, making this one of the biggest fresh food fraud stories affecting the wine trade today.
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Champagne Sales Are Still Not Expected to Recover in 2026
The Drinks Business reports that Champagne is unlikely to see a meaningful sales rebound in 2026 after three straight years of declining shipments, because production costs, exchange rates, and wider market conditions are still weighing on the category. The preview available from the publication and its LinkedIn post suggests the region is hoping for a turnaround, but the mood in the trade remains cautious rather than confident.
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Italian Wine Exports Fell to €7.7 Billion in 2025
WineNews reports that Italian wine exports totalled €7.7 billion in 2025, down 3.7% from 2024, while shipment volume fell 1.8% to 2.1 billion litres, confirming a softer global market after the previous year’s record. It also says the US, still Italy’s top market, dropped 9.1% by value, the UK slipped 3.8%, and Germany was broadly stable, showing that exporters are now leaning harder on steadier European demand while North American and Asian markets remain more fragile.
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US Doubles Down on Bordeaux
Wine-Searcher reports that Bordeaux has strengthened its hold on US wine searches, led by Château Lafite Rothschild, whose annual search volume rose from just under 400,000 to almost 900,000. The article suggests that, despite tariff fears and trade uncertainty, American fine-wine attention is concentrating even more heavily on top Bordeaux labels, with four of the five most-searched wines now coming from the region.
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Russians Destroy Historic 19th-Century Ukrainian Winery
Hudin reports that two Russian FAB-500 bombs destroyed the historic Prince Trubetskoi Winery building in Ukraine’s Kherson region, after the estate had already been occupied, looted and stripped of around 70 years of archived wines earlier in the war. The owners had already moved active production to Ozerne under the Stoic Wines name, so the latest strike looks like another blow to Ukrainian wine heritage rather than current output, though the original plans were saved for a future rebuild.
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Rías Baixas Considers Curbing Grape Output as Wine Demand Falls
Spain’s Rías Baixas wine region is considering (in Spanish) measures to limit grape production after a record 2025 harvest coincided with a sharp drop in wine consumption, leaving wineries with surplus stock and putting pressure on prices. Industry leaders are discussing a temporary halt to new vineyard plantings and possible adjustments to the maximum yield allowed per hectare in order to better match supply with weaker demand. The article argues that the downturn is being driven mainly by changing consumer habits and declining global wine consumption rather than tariffs, making production control a key strategy for protecting growers and wineries.
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UK Wine Imports Fall in 2025 as Volume Drops and Prices Shift
Meininger reports that in 2025, UK wine imports fell sharply, with total volume down 6% year on year to 11.9 million hectolitres and value declining 4.6% to £3.7 billion, reflecting the impact of the reformed alcohol duty system and changing consumer habits. Although the average price per litre rose slightly to £3.14, most major exporting countries suffered notable declines, with only France, New Zealand and Portugal increasing volumes, largely by cutting prices. France boosted sales mainly through cheaper sparkling and bulk wine, while New Zealand posted the strongest volume growth but at much lower unit prices. Italy, still the UK’s biggest supplier by volume, remained relatively stable with only a modest decline, and Germany also saw only a slight drop, in contrast to heavier losses among exporters such as Australia, Spain, Chile, South Africa and the USA.