The World Bulk Wine Exhibition 2025 (WBWE) held in Amsterdam earlier this week painted a clear, data-rich picture of an industry in transition. Rafael Del Ray, who was the founder and manager of analytics firm, Spanish Observatory of Wine Markets up until 2024 and with over 30 years experience analysing wine markets made the case that the industry while in flux has opportunities as well.
Del Rey outlined the structural shifts – from contracting vineyard areas to the globalisation of supply chains – that are reshaping both traditional and emerging wine markets. While there are no doubt headwinds in the global wine market, overall the bulk wine sector is not only holding its ground but outperforming other categories in several metrics.
Here are five key insights from the latest global and bulk wine data shared at the opening ceremony of the WBWE25 trade show from Del Ray.
Global wine production has fallen to lowest level since 1961
The most striking macro-trend is the plunge in global production, said Del Ray. Despite overproduction in regions like New Zealand, Australia and Argentina, the world produced just 228–235 million hectolitres, the lowest volume in more than six decades. The declines are driven by ongoing vineyard surface decline, climatic volatility, harvest variability and structural oversupply corrections in several traditional regions.
At the same time, producers face inflationary pressures that are pushing up costs while demand remains muted or declines. The net effect: an industry squeezed between lower output and higher expenses, forcing efficiency improvements, portfolio restructuring and stricter supply discipline.
Consumption is in decline
Traditional markets like Italy, France, Spain, Portugal and Argentina continue their long-term softening, while “non-classic” markets such as the USA, Australia, Canada, the UK, and South Africa show more dynamic consumer profiles.
Key consumption insights:
- Colour and style preferences are shifting: reds continue to decline, while sparkling and rosé demonstrate relative resilience.
- Premiumisation persists, even as total volumes contract – suggesting that consumers are drinking less but better.
- Inflation has compressed lower-value segments, accelerating divergence between high-value and commoditised wines.
This divergence in consumption trends sets the stage for increased importance of flexible sourcing models – including bulk wine.
International wine trade continues to become more global
Despite the decline in consumption, international trade remains robust, reaching the third-highest value ever recorded. However, most of this is due to inflationary pressures contributing to price rises, not due to increased margins for the players in the market.
Notable changes in the global market:
- Value is up ~30% compared to 2020.
- Export and import intensity indices underscore a deeply interconnected supply chain, especially in Europe, where cross-border flows dominate.
Premiumisation is a major contributor to the resiliency being seen in value, even with lower volumes, but again the trade value remains historically elevated due to higher input costs that are being passed on to customers.
Bulk wine outperforms in specific markets
A central theme shared that was surprising is that the bulk wine category is evolving more strongly than other drinks categories in certain countries.
Spain remains the volume giant, with one third of world bulk exports originating out of the country. But pricing from Spain is among the lowest global prices, reflecting its role as a source for blending and high-volume needs.
Bulk represents:
- > 33% of global exported wine volumes, but still only accounts for 7.3% of global export value
- A very low average price of €0.78/litre, compared with, €1.95/l for Bag-in-Box, €4.82/l for bottled wines
Despite lower prices, bulk wine is increasingly strategic. Several major exporters are growing rapidly in value, including:
- USA: +16% growth to the UK; with huge gains in China, Denmark and Canada
- Portugal and France: double-digit bulk export growth
- Australia: recovering shipments to China
Price discrepancies between exporters, like New Zealand compared to Spain, confirms that bulk is not one market but several segments with distinct price tiers and value propositions.
Two diverging futures
Del Ray highlighted the emergence of two structurally different bulk wine markets, each accounting for around 50% of total volume of the global bulk wine market:
Bulk wine for final consumption makes up 45.6% of volume, but roughly accounts for 60% of value. It often commands, higher average prices, often involves long-distance shipments matched with bottling at destination
- Concentration in markets like the UK and Germany as bottlers and then exporting finished goods is helping export figures for these markets
- Strong potential for environmental and cost advantages
- Growth in private-label programmes and re-export hubs
- This segment is increasing—up 5.3% in volume and 3.6% in value, demonstrating there are opportunities out there.
Bulk wine for producers using it for blending and bas wines accounts for a large part of intra-European trade, is highly price-competitive, linked to aviaiablity of domestic croops and is heavily relliant on Spain as the cateogry's backbone. The segment is also shrinking looking at the last 12-months accoding to Del Ray's findings.
The two segments have different long-term trajectories:
- The final-consumption bulk segment is aligned with retailer strategies, environmental efficiencies and consolidation of global distribution.
- The producer-to-producer segment faces pressure from declining consumption of traditional wines and improving domestic production capacities in importing countries
Market in transition
The global wine sector is navigating a historic moment: production at 60-year lows, consumption shifting and trade becoming ever more internationalised. Within this landscape, bulk wine is facing some headwinds in certain regions, but it does offer flexibility, efficiency and new routes to market.
At WBWE25, one message was clear: bulk wine is no longer a secondary category – it is central to the architecture of the modern global wine industry.
