In poetry, song, restaurants and real life, red wine used to be code for luxury, romance and aspirational adulthood. But in the past 20 years, the world has strayed from red and fallen head over heels for young, spry, bright white.
Plantings and producers have managed to keep up with the change, but poetry and song haven't quite gotten there. (Or have they?)
While The Chainsmokers' "White Wine & Adderall" may not feel as timeless and celebratory as UB40's swinging rendition of Neil Diamond's "Red Red Wine," it does feel, like the growth in white wine, like an accurate reflection of the rather tepid current Zeitgeist.
We don't need to excavate all of the demons here, as wine's long and depressing decline has been meticulously documented here and in other publications for years, but it has become increasingly clear, from anecdotal observation and broad global data dumps, that in many regions that were once almost exclusively red-focused, white is now dominating.
Take Uruguay, where Tannat has been the flagship grape until very recently. Bodega Garzón planted Albariño in 2009, and has seen such gobsmacking success with the varietal, they recently added 5 hectares to their existing 40, with plans to add more in the near future.
"The momentum behind our Albariño sales really began about five years ago," says Christian Wylie, managing director of Bodega Garzón. "And then two years ago, when we changed importers and joined Winebow, sales really took off. In the US, Albariño became our top-seller, replacing Tannat."
Last year, it grew 52 percent in sales year-over-year on-premise.
How significant is the shift, really?
Not everyone is growing their sales like Garzón. But the widespread repositioning from a focus on red to whites in key regions, and the corresponding uptick in sales those regions register, is undeniable.
Globally, the demand for red wine has plummeted since the dawn of the new millennium, when red wines accounted on average for 48 percent of wine produced in the world, according to an analysis of wine by color by the International Organisation of Wine and Vine (OIV) covering the period between 2000 and 2021. Today, that share stands at around 43 percent, with some countries, like France, now producing about 50 percent less than they did in 2000.
Production of white wine, meanwhile, is increasing, especially in the US (which increased production of whites by 39.6 percent), South Africa, Chile, and New Zealand. Overall, production of white wine rose by 13 percent since its lowest level in 2002, and began to surge past red wine in 2013. Currently, white wine now accounts for 49 percent of all wine made.
Who's drinking all of this white vino? Glugs are up 57.5 percent in the US, 29.3 percent in Australia, and 20.3 percent in the UK.
The most recent California Crush Report shows that while the 2025 winegrape crush plummeted 8.4 percent in tonnage year-over-year, making it the smallest since 1999. Red wine volume took the biggest hit, plummeting -10.8 percent, while white wine dropped by -6 percent. There were significant bright spots, primarily among white varieties, with Pinot Gris up 4.2 percent, and Sauvignon Blanc up 16.1 percent. The biggest dives were among reds like Petite Sirah, off by -23.3 percent; Zinfandel, which was down by -24.7 percent; and Syrah, which skid -27.4 percent.
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