Wine & spirits

The European Commission's latest trade figures carry a message wine importers should not wave away: Europe's growth abroad is now coming from spirits, not wine, and the gap is widest in the United States. I read this as a shift in the export mix that will outlast the current tariff cycle, and buyers who treat wine's weakness as a temporary dip risk carrying the wrong inventory into 2027.

South Australia's government says its wine exports to Canada rose by more than A$24 million in the year to August 2026, reaching A$128 million. Volume climbed 38.6 percent to 48.5 million litres, and the state now supplies 68 percent of all Australian wine sold into Canada. Canada has become South Australia's third-largest wine market, ahead of the United States and behind only China and the United Kingdom. The jump follows the decision by Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia and other provinces, starting in March 2025, to pull US alcohol from their shelves. A four-week LCBO promotion of 16 South Australian wines across nine flagship stores lifted sales 49 percent, and the state will now place a trade official in Toronto.

Republic National Distributing Company, which filed for Chapter 11 in July, has won court approval to sell its Michigan wine business, according to WOOD TV. At a hearing in Houston on October 22, a bankruptcy judge granted the motion RNDC filed on October 16. The wine business will go to Great Lakes Wine & Spirits, Imperial Beverage Company and Vintage Wine, and Great Lakes will also take the equity of the authorized distribution agent business. RNDC estimates about $20 million in net proceeds at or around closing and said the deal could close by the end of October. The Michigan operation is a joint venture with National Wine & Spirits that sat outside the original filing.

Canada's ban on American alcohol has removed about US$357 million from US exports in just over a year, The Drinks Business reported on October 20, citing Wine Institute figures that it describes as the worst single-year disruption in the history of US wine trade. The dispute escalated in September, when Washington moved from 50% tariffs on selected Canadian goods to banning several Canadian imports, alcohol included. Canadian wine is filling the gap: home-market sales are up about 60% in Ontario and 40% in Quebec since the ban began. Walla Walla winemaker Doug Frost of Echolands told the outlet his export business disappeared overnight.

Napa-based importer, distributor and marketer Quintessential has signed agreements to add Chile's Montes and Argentina's Kaiken to its US portfolio, Shanken News Daily reported on October 21. Montes moves over on November 1, 2026, and Kaiken follows on January 1, 2027. Quintessential will handle Montes Alpha M, Montes Folly, Purple Angel and Taita, along with Kaiken Ultra, Boulder and the flagship Mai Malbec. The two join a South American book that already includes Pascual Toso and Bodegas Bianchi from Argentina and Seña, Viñedo Chadwick and Matetic Vineyards from Chile.

Italian wine exports to the United States rose nearly 17% in value in the third quarter of 2026 compared with the same months of 2025, according to provisional EU trade data analysed by the trade group Unione Italiana Vini. Volume grew 6.6%. Red wines led with a 33% gain in value. UIV linked part of the jump to distributors rebuilding inventories, and noted that summer 2025 was an unusually weak base. Across non-EU markets, Italian shipments are still down 3% in value for January to September, at roughly 3.3 billion euros.

Pernod Ricard opened its 2027 fiscal year with first-quarter net sales of €2.234 billion, an organic decline of 0.9%. The weak spots were the United States, down 10%, and China, down 25%, and the company attributed both mainly to inventory adjustments. Asia and the rest of the world grew 9%, led by India at close to 20%, while Europe fell 6%. Pernod expects organic sales to be broadly stable this year and only low single digit growth through fiscal 2029.

New customs figures show the US imported about €2.43 billion of wine in the first half of 2026, a fall of roughly 25% in value and 17% in volume from a year earlier. The 15% tariff on European wine, in place since August 2025, is doing most of the damage, and France and Italy, which supply more than 70% of import value, have each lost around a quarter of their US sales.