New grapes, old vines, lower alcohol – wine trends to watch in 2025

Although I might like to think of fashion in wine being all about style, quality and discovery, the fact is that trends are often shaped by wider economic and political factors that have little to do with taste.

Take the mini boom enjoyed by Australian wine in the UK earlier in the decade. That was a side-effect of Aussie producers lowering prices to fill a gap caused by swingeing tariffs in their main export market, China. Or the rise, over the past couple of years, in wines with alcohol contents below 11.5% abv – a UK development which was at least as much about beating the threshold for new higher duty rates as it was about satisfying demand for lighter styles.

We’ll be seeing even more of those wines this year, and some even lighter, since, starting next month, the new duty with a sliding scale of 11p per 0.5% abv of alcohol comes into full effect – and that’s just one of the changes which will make wine more expensive for you and me in 2025. Another factor shaping vin-flation will be the ongoing impact of the climate crisis, with France a notable victim of increasingly unpredictable weather patterns with a historically low crop in 2024 (down by 23% from 2023) likely to push up prices, while making some favourite styles harder to come by.

But the impact of the climate crisis goes beyond stock-levels and pricing. It’s also shaping approaches to packaging (you’ll see far fewer examples of CO2-emission-inflating, elbow-straining, super-heavy bottles on shelves this year), and influencing choices of grape variety and vineyard. Last year was a breakthrough for a new set of grape varieties, the Piwis, which have been bred specifically for greater resistance to the sort of fungal diseases that increasingly occur in ever more frequent warm, wet years (such as 2024 in France). I fully expect to see more wines made from the likes of floreal and souvignier gris in the coming months.

We’ll also see more wines made from Mediterranean varieties such as grenache (AKA garnacha), carignan, and assyrtiko, which are valued in areas where the chief consequence of the climate crisis so far has been an excess of heat and an absence of water. In the same hot-climate regions, wines made from coastal, island, and high-altitude sites, where growers are able to moderate the heat with the cool of sea and mountain breezes, will also continue their ascent.

Other styles that seemed to reach a tipping point in 2024 and that, according to most retailers I speak to, are only likely to continue to grow this year, include Greek wine, orange wine, pet-nat sparkling wines, light, chillable reds and “appassimento” wines made from dried grapes, while popular styles that seem to have reached their peak and are on or approaching the downward slope include pale pink rosé from Provence and elsewhere, prosecco and New Zealand sauvignon blanc. As for the reasons why: well, perhaps someone smarter than me can find a more complex explanation, but maybe sometimes some wine trends are driven by nothing more complicated than one of the most powerful forces of all: boredom and the urge for something new.

Trending bottles: six wines on the up in 2025

De Bortoli Chill Bill Spritzy Red, Riverina, Australia NV
(£9.50, 75cl, ocado.com)

A wine that hits various 2025 sweet spots: at 9.5%, it meets a growing demand for lower alcohol; with its super-fresh, red-fruited character, it’s very much in the chillable red zone, while the spritz of bubbles is all in-keeping with the ongoing fashion for fizz of all kinds.

Paul Mas Sauvignon Blanc Souvignier Gris, Languedoc-Roussillon, France 2023
(£10, 75cl, Tesco)

One of a pair of wines introduced by Tesco featuring newly created, disease-resistant Piwi grapes, Paul Mas cleverly blends the souviginier gris with 55% of the more famous sauvignon blanc for a refreshingly light, gently verdant, freshly peachy dry white.

Arnaud Aucoeur Vieilles Vignes Beaujolais Blanc, France 2022
(£15.95, 75cl, yapp.co.uk)

The past two decades has seen global white wine production eclipse that of red, and many traditionally red-focused regions are taking whites much more seriously. This delightfully fluent, floral chardonnay is a perfect complement to Beaujolais’s better-known gamay reds.

Fasoli Gino Bidizzia Catarratto, Sicily, Italy
(£16.99, 1 litre, adnams.co.uk)

Orange wines continue to find new converts and Sicily is a consistent source of some of the best-value examples. With 15 days of skin contact, this has just the right combination of apricot, orange citrus fresh, and textural chew.

Tajinaste Tradicional Listán Nego, Tenerife, Spain 2022
(£18.95, 75cl, buonvino.co.uk)

Another wine ticking off multiple 2025 trends, made as it is from a relatively obscure grape variety (listán negro) from old vines, grown on volcanic soils on a remote island. Stylistically, it’s also bang on trend: racy and wild with raspberry, cranberry, pepper spice and earthy minerals.

Alta Yari Gran Corte, Gualtallary, Uco Valley, Argentina 2022
(£22, 75cl, Tesco)

This outstanding Argentine red is a gorgeous combination of sappy red plum, juicy mulberry and mineral complexity. It’s made largely from a rising-star grape variety (it’s 60% cabernet franc) grown at high-altitude in a rising-star Andean sub-region of Gualtallary in Mendoz’s Uco Valley.