Argentine wine sales at home and abroad are slumping, following a global trend and in line with the country’s drop in consumption across the board. While the country’s winemakers and grape farmers are scrambling, the national government has eliminated nearly 1,000 regulations and norms for the sector, aiming to boost sales — a move that the sector’s main players have varying views on.

According to the National Institute of Viticulture (INV), from January to September 2025, wine sales in Argentina fell 2.5% compared to the same period of the previous year. Wine exports from January to October 2025 decreased 6.8%.

The drop in wine consumption accelerated, but it is not new — while in 2021 Argentines drank 8.3 million hectoliters, in 2024 they bought 7.6 million hectoliters.

Sven Piederiet, the CEO of Salentein, a staple winery in Mendoza, the country’s main wine-producing province, said that there is a worldwide decline in alcohol consumption, as beer, spirits, and wine dropped in sales volume, mainly in Europe and the USA.

Argentina, he added, was struck by a broad decline in mass consumption in 2024.

While Salentein did very well over the........

© Buenos Aires Herald