{"id":45485,"date":"2026-06-11T18:18:38","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T16:18:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vinexposium.com\/?p=45485"},"modified":"2026-09-02T11:01:30","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T09:01:30","slug":"regional-focus-how-soaring-prices-brought-the-spanish-bulk-wine-market-to-a-standstill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vinexposium.com\/en\/actus\/bulk\/regional-focus-how-soaring-prices-brought-the-spanish-bulk-wine-market-to-a-standstill\/","title":{"rendered":"How soaring prices brought the Spanish bulk wine market to a standstill"},"content":{"rendered":"

Author: <\/strong>World Bulk Wine Exhibition<\/p>\n

After a consecutive run of short harvests and depleted carryover stocks, Spain\u2019s bulk wine industry appeared to have broken free from the gravitational pull of low prices. That was until geopolitical uncertainty, declining global consumption and soaring prices brought reality crashing back. David Martin, head of Ciatti\u2019s Spanish office in Madrid, describes the country\u2019s latest campaign as a \u201ccontroversial-turned- nightmare year<\/em>\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ignore the sobering realities of the international wine market at your peril. Spain may well remain the world\u2019s largest supplier of bulk wine; this year\u2019s campaign has demonstrated that the balance of power is no longer in producers\u2019 hands.<\/p>\n

The seeds of the current campaign were sown the previous year, when low inventories and another short crop prompted Spanish producers to push prices sharply higher following the 2024 vintage. \u201cThe campaign became a mind game<\/em>\u201d, recalls David Martin. As the months passed, buying panic drove prices to a peak in June 2025. Inevitably, the same dynamic carried over into the 2025-2026 campaign, after another of the shortest harvests in recent years.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlarm bells began ringing across the country, especially in the La Mancha region. The feeling was that there wouldn\u2019t be enough wine to go around. Carryover stocks were limited and export values remained high, albeit on lower volumes due to reduced availability\u201d.<\/em> <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Even before they became wine, grape prices for the 2025 harvest surged by 20 to 25% with white varietals leading the charge. \u201cAs soon as co-operatives realised grape prices would rise they immediately began asking more for wine, effectively launching the campaign at levels comparable to the June 2025 peak<\/em>\u201d. Generic whites, along with reds, traded at between 52 and 55 euros per hectolitre, fuelling frustration among buyers and ultimately triggering a market-wide stand-off. \u201cBuyers were reluctant to pay high prices for three years in a row for a category that had traditionally been easy and inexpensive \u2013 suddenly, it had become difficult and expensive<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

False assumptions <\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Pushing back against rising prices, buyers initially limited themselves to covering immediate needs, contracting wines from October to December. Yet the customary Christmas lull soon stretched well beyond the festive season, extending into January, February, March and even April. \u201cA few contracts were signed by buyers who consistently source Spanish wines in order to secure volumes, but from December onwards, the market collapsed<\/em>\u201d, recalls Martin.<\/p>\n

Traditionally, 40 to 60% of Spanish bulk wine volumes<\/strong> are marketed from the pre-harvest period through to Christmas. By late 2025, however, even those volumes had fallen short of normal levels. \u201cProducers were aiming to secure better prices for growers. With another short harvest, they were confident that the remaining volumes could be sold gradually throughout the year<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

The global economic backdrop and weakening wine consumption, internationally and domestically, soon proved them wrong. By March, prices had begun to soften marginally and terms became more flexible, yet demand still failed to materialise. \u201cIn April, people started to get nervous because it was not normal to see no contracts and no major buyers in the market for four consecutive months<\/em>\u201d. As pressure built, asking prices fell from their \u20ac55 highs to around \u20ac45 per hectolitre<\/strong>, slipping further in May. And yet the phones remained silent.<\/p>\n

\u201cBuyers are sitting tight because they know suppliers will eventually become, not nervous, but desperate and start accepting almost any deal. In May and June, and particularly in July, we expect some contracting because buyers still need to bottle. But purchases may be smaller, with buyers holding off until August for the lowest offers<\/em>\u201d. For suppliers, it has become a brutal lesson in market economics. \u201cWhat began as a controversial year is turning into a nightmare for some growers who believed they would secure good prices for their product at the start of the campaign. Now those prices will not even cover the cost of the grapes they paid for earlier in the season<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

The global substitution effect<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

The difficulties facing the Spanish bulk wine industry offer a textbook example of the fluid dynamics shaping the global bulk wine market. Demand, while subdued, did not disappear this year \u2013 it simply shifted towards alternative supplier countries. \u201cImport figures from Chile into Spain were huge this year compared with previous campaigns<\/em>\u201d, confirms Martin. \u201cLarge volumes of overseas wines entered the Spanish market, including for Spanish buyers themselves. Some of the country\u2019s biggest bottlers, which supply multiple international markets, appear to have turned abroad for sourcing. I suspect the same has happened in markets such as Germany. In my view, demand is being met by third countries<\/em>\u201d. Bulk wine requirements themselves have also come under pressure: \u201cThe war and other issues are slowing trade internationally<\/em>\u201d, agrees Martin. \u201cLoading schedules were slower than usual, especially for sparkling base wines destined for German, French and other buyers<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

With European producer countries currently offering competitively priced bulk wines, the Spanish broker believes the recent shift towards South American sourcing \u2013 including Argentina for concentrate \u2013 is likely to prove temporary. \u201cOnce the Spanish market returns to normal, which I believe is happening now and should continue next year, there will be very little room for Argentina and Chile to remain competitive. If Spanish wines return to between 42 and 48 euros per hectolitre, compared with \u20ac28 plus \u20ac17 in transport costs for, say, Argentine wines, it is simply not worth the hassle for European buyers just to save a few cents. Depending on price levels in Spain, they will either represent a threat \u2013 or they won\u2019t<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

The market\u2019s attention is now turning to this year\u2019s harvest. Following generous winter and spring rainfall, vineyard conditions across Spain currently appear promising. \u201cI anticipate a very good season, although temperatures over the summer months will ultimately be decisive. If they soar to 38\u00b0C, 42\u00b0C or even 45\u00b0C as they have in recent years, the impact on production could be substantial<\/em>\u201d. While take-up under Spain\u2019s state-backed green harvesting programme appears to have remained relatively limited this year, Martin believes the era of bumper harvests may now be over. \u201cThe huge crops we saw five or six years ago \u2013 around 48 million hectolitres nationally \u2013 are unlikely to happen again. A significant amount of vineyards have been uprooted and some replanted with pistachio or olive trees. If we did have a very large crop, I don\u2019t know where we would put the wine<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Glass Credit: glass of wine and lights<\/p>\n

Glass ceiling <\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

The ongoing downsizing of Europe\u2019s vineyards does not necessarily bode well for the Spanish bulk wine industry, either in terms of volume or value. \u201cFrench buyers have traditionally relied on Spanish wines to achieve competitive price points for products such as lower-end bag-in-box wines. But over the past couple of years, that demand has weakened noticeably, and that is concerning for us<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

The contraction in global wine consumption has, at least temporarily, upended the assumption that lower volumes automatically command a premium. Spain\u2019s dependence on traditional European producer markets for its bulk wine exports has also imposed something of a glass ceiling on its value ambitions. \u201cSpanish wine will remain more competitively priced than French or Italian wine because our natural markets will always be Germany, France, Italy and the rest of Europe. We still struggle to sell large volumes globally. Only in a scenario where wine consumption was growing everywhere could Spanish wines reach pricing levels comparable to those of France or Italy<\/em>\u201d. For now, however, buyers are likely to encounter highly competitive offers coming out of Spain.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany buyers will be taking advantage of this situation, probably covering their needs with 2025 wines through to the end of the year and into 2027. That could lead to slower trading for new wines and softer grape prices. Then again,\u201d <\/em>Martin concludes, \u201cI don\u2019t have a crystal ball \u2013 and hopefully my predictions are wrong.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Author: World Bulk Wine Exhibition After a consecutive run of short harvests and depleted carryover stocks, Spain\u2019s bulk wine industry appeared to have broken free from the gravitational pull of low prices. That was until geopolitical uncertainty, (\u2026)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":45619,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[365],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bulk","format-article"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow soaring prices brought the Spanish bulk wine market to a standstill – Vinexposium<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vinexposium.com\/en\/actus\/bulk\/regional-focus-how-soaring-prices-brought-the-spanish-bulk-wine-market-to-a-standstill\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How soaring prices brought the Spanish bulk wine market to a standstill – Vinexposium\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Author: World Bulk Wine Exhibition After a consecutive run of short harvests and depleted carryover stocks, Spain\u2019s bulk wine industry appeared to have broken free from the gravitational pull of low prices. 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