It’s that time of new year, when I consult my crystal glass to glimpse where the wine world is going next. Some powerful, important trends are still ongoing, some wacky ones are thankfully disappearing, and others are brand-new.
Let’s start with one thing that will stick around for the foreseeable future: climate change.
The past 10 years have been the warmest since recordkeeping began, and 2024 was the warmest yet, the first to breach 1.5C of global warming. The World Meteorological Organization will publish the final figures this month.
So expect severe weather events (drought, heat waves, heavy rainfall, frost, hail and more) to influence everything from vineyard location and the varieties of grapes to farming and the quality of wines, as they did last year. It’s tough to predict just where climate change will take its biggest toll in 2025. But keep in mind there’s a reason why famed German winemaker Klaus Peter Keller planted a riesling vineyard in Norway, and why reds from New York’s Finger Lakes are getting better.
Vintners are persevering with adaptation solutions. Two examples: LVMH is investing heavily in regenerative farming, and Champagne Telmont, whose own 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 organization last year.
The global decline in wine consumption continues, too, though it appears to be slowing in the US, according to Jon Moramarco, founder of market-research firm bw166.
Will pop culture boost demand? A late December episode of The Simpsons featured a million-dollar bottle of red Burgundy and a wine fraud scheme. Yes, it satirized wine and wine snobs, and threw in insider jokes, but it also romanticized the beverage.
Here’s what else I see in my crystal glass:
No-alcohol vino will achieve luxury status
In 2024 more top winemakers got into the no-alcohol wine business with premium, better-tasting, more sophisticated bottles, like the $120 French Bloom La Cuvée, a 2022 vintage sparkler crafted by a noted Champagne maker. There’s also the Missing Thorn lineup of alcohol-removed wines from Napa wizard Aaron Pott. Dealcoholization technology is improving, so expect many more good examples to arrive in 2025.
Bordeaux is on trend. Two châteaus on the Right Bank have already released no-alcohol labels and will add more this year; a group of winemakers in the region recently opened a facility to remove alcohol; and November saw the opening of Bordeaux’s first no-alcohol wine shop. Italy is joining in as well, with the agriculture minister signing a law in November greenlighting alcohol-free production.
Demand for these wines is increasing with reports that drinking any kind of alcohol holds health risks. Which is partly why data from a 2024 IWSR strategic study showed 61 million new consumers bought into the no-alcohol category from 2022 to 2024. No wonder the annual Wine Paris trade show in February will showcase a range of them.
You’ll be drinking even more white wines, especially chenin blanc and blends
White wines outpaced reds globally last year, and not just sauvignon blanc and pinot grigio. White malbec from Argentina and white pinot noir from Oregon are now a thing.
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