Trade wars, along with a generational shift away from wine, have pushed Bordeaux winemakers into turmoil, with French wine and spirits exports sinking to their lowest level in two decades.

"In volume, our exports have been in a slump and are at their lowest level in at least 20 years," Gabriel Picard, president of FEVS, the country's federation of wine and spirits exporters, told Bloomberg at the Wine Paris fair on Tuesday.

Gabriel Picard

Picard warned that wine sales have been sliding since 2022. In an earlier statement, he said, "Geopolitical tensions, trade conflicts, exchange-rate fluctuations, and the loss of consumer confidence have all weighed on our exports."

In a separate interview with Reuters at Wine Paris, he added, "There is a real decline in the U.S., and the volume correction may not have been sufficient."

He warned, "We may see another volume correction in 2026."

Wine Map Of France 

FEVS data show that exports in 2025 declined 8% in value to $17 billion compared with 2024. Volumes fell by about 3%.

The Wine Paris trade fair is a push by President Macron to search for solutions to the industry's crisis. The French government is paying winemakers in Bordeaux to rip up their vines to reduce oversupply.

Looking at markets, the Liv-ex Fine Wine 50, a benchmark index from Liv-ex that tracks daily price moves in Bordeaux First Growths, comprises 50 component wines and shows the bust underway since peaking in early 2023.

"Twenty years ago, people liked robust reds with a high alcohol content, but today they're looking for fresher, lighter wines, so producers in Bordeaux are returning to an old winemaking method to suit new tastes," Bernard Burtschy, a wine critic for Le Figaro, told The Times.