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Wine trends in 2025
Here are some of the predicted wine trends in 2025—it is a small slice of the collective pie from numerous wine outlets and people.
CHILLED REDS
No one wants to drink red wine that is room temperature, or 20°C or warmer. They are simply not enjoyable. The resulting wine will be out of balance with aggressively high tannins and low acid, meaning it won’t feel refreshing.
Red wines with lower alcohol, higher acid and sometimes less tannins are perfect from the fridge. Chilling such wine would be a welcome relief to the highly alcoholic, low acid wines from warmer climes. Through chilling the acid will seem higher, more refreshing and the tannins lower or less aggressive. By the end of the meal, it will have warmed up and be more expressive than the beginning.
ALTERNATIVE FORMATS
There was a time when screw tops, or Stelvin closures, indicated low quality wine. This is not the case today with many high-end winemakers choosing to finish their wines with a Stelvin closure. Today people consider bagin- box wines lower quality, yet this could hardly be further from the truth. For young and fresh wines that are well made, there is nothing wrong with having a 1.5-litre or even 3-litre box of it in your fridge. This not only reduces the material waste, but it is less weight to ship than a traditional glass bottle. Other alternatives to glass bottles are simply bags themselves. Remember the Sunny Delight bags? Imagine something with more volume holding wine at the campground this year. It doesn’t have to be plonk either. And again, such packaging is much lighter than its glass counterpart. And of course cans have been around for a while now and have become commonplace in some settings.
SUSTAINABILITY
For crucial reasons, sustainability is a hot topic these days across any industry—and more so in the world of wine, which is one of the least sustainable products we choose to consume. The amount of water alone required to produce it is mind-blowing. And I am not talking about irrigation in the vineyard, as many vineyards only use rain. I am talking about in the winery itself, where cleanliness is vital and water is needed at every step of the way. There are numerous facets to consider regarding sustainability in the wine world, and in 2025 winemakers are paying attention—- from which grape to plant to what kind of ink to use on a label, and ways to make shipping lighter and cheaper, with a smaller carbon footprint for distributing to the consumer.
BACK TO BASICS
Even though it is great, and often cheaper, to drink wines from little known appellations, learning the fundamentals is important and sourcing wines from the classic places helps you understand the fundamentals of wine. As a result, there is more interest in the classic regions such as Sancerre, Chablis and Bordeaux to name a few.
So what trends do you see happening? What trends will you follow and what trends will you help create?
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