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The wine business is in crisis

The wine industry faces an existential threat that cuts across price points and prestige levels, supply and demand

ByJackie Snow

Published 16 hours ago

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Photo by IDRISS BIGOU-GILLES/AFP via Getty Images

A version of this article originally appeared in Quartz’s members-only Weekend Brief newsletter. Quartz members get access to exclusive newsletters and more. Sign up here.

For the first time since Prohibition, the global wine industry faces an existential threat. Consumption has fallen to levels not seen in decades, and the structural decline suggests this is not a temporary slump but a permanent realignment of the market.

Global wine consumption fell 3.3% in 2024 to 214.2 million hectoliters, the lowest level since 1961, according to the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV). Production dropped 4.8% to 225.8 million hectoliters, also a six-decade low. The industry has seen a wave of vineyard removals across major wine-producing regions, from California's Central Valley to France's Languedoc-Roussillon to Germany's Mosel.

California growers left an estimated 300,000 tons of grapes unharvested in 2024 and removed 37,000 acres of vines, with industry groups calling for another 50,000 acres to come out........

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