How the wine world will change in 2025

It is that time of the year when I consult my crystal glass to glimpse where the wine world is going next.

- Elin McCoy

Some powerful, important trends are ongoing, some wacky ones are thankfully disappearing and others are brand new.

Let us start with one thing that will stick around for the foreseeable future: climate change.

The past 10 years have been the warmest since record-keeping began and 2024 was the warmest yet, the first to breach 1.5 deg C of global warming.

So, expect severe weather events—drought, heatwaves, heavy rainfall, frost, hail and more—to influence everything from vineyard location to the varieties of grapes to farming to the quality of wines, as they did in 2024.

Vintners are persevering with adaptation solutions. Two examples: LVMH is investing heavily in regenerative farming; and Champagne Telmont, whose vineyards are organic, aims to have all its grower-partners certified by 2031.

Each year, more wineries commit to reaching net-zero carbon emissions, such as the Greek estates that joined the International Wineries for Climate Action organisation last year.

The global decline in wine consumption continues, too, though it appears to be slowing in the United States, according to Mr Jon Moramarco, founder of market-research firm bw166.

Will pop culture boost demand? A late December episode of The Simpsons (1989 to present) featured a million-dollar bottle of red Burgundy and a wine fraud scheme. Yes, it satirised wine and wine snobs, and threw in insider jokes, but it also romanticised the beverage.