Tackling wine declines: Europe sets out plan of action

The European wine industry is grappling with rising production costs, labor shortages, climate change impacts, and a declining consumer base, leading to supply-demand imbalances and trade uncertainties. The European Committee of Wine Companies (CEEV) recently engaged with the European Commission to advocate for policies that enhance the sector's competitiveness, resilience to climate change, and sustainability. Proposals include supporting wine operators through market regulation, promoting flexibility in geographical indications for climate change adaptation, updating production and labeling rules for low-alcohol wines, and simplifying regulatory burdens for small and medium-sized EU wine producers.

Grape and wine producers face ‘critical’ challenges due to rising production costs. Labor can be hard to come by. Then there’s the threat of climate change: with rising temperatures and increasingly frequent extreme weather events affecting harvest times, crop sizes and grape quality – creating a headache to plan around at best, and a catastrophic loss of harvest at worst (global wine production was down 9.6% in 2023​, attributed to extreme climatic events). And wine is in a long-term structural decline. The category has always relied on older drinkers, and has done little to attract younger drinkers​ who are much more interested in trending categories such as RTD alcohol and craft beer. And, in general, alcohol is increasingly under fire as trends shift towards health and wellness – leading to what CEEV calls the ‘demonization of wine’ in health policy. The result is that supply and demand simply don't match up. The decline in consumption – along with disruption of trade ...