Wine Sales in France Decline Again

In 2024, 35m fewer bottles of wine were sold in French supermarkets compared to the previous year—a decrease of 4.2%. This is the key figure from a study by French market research firm Circana for RTL, published on June 4. As supermarket sales account for 70 to 80% of total wine sales in France (depending on the source), this drop points to yet another overall decline in wine consumption.

Red wines (–5.1%) and rosés (–6%) were particularly hard hit, while white wine bucked the trend with a 0.6% increase in volume and a 2% rise in value. The performance was even stronger in higher quality segments: white wines with AOP status saw a 3.6% increase in sales, while those with IGP labels grew by 6.8%. Still, in absolute terms, red wine (325m bottles) and rosé (280m bottles) continue to significantly outsell white wine (185m bottles). However, according to the latest SoWine Barometer, 91% of French consumers named white wine as their most frequently consumed wine.

While the decline in red wine consumption has long been viewed as a structural trend, the study attributes rosé’s weaker performance to cyclical factors. The “weather-sensitive” rosé has suffered from particularly poor weather conditions, including a historically rainy summer in 2024 and a similarly wet start to 2025, especially in the south.

According to the monthly Circana Barometer on beverage sales in French retail, published by industry platform Rayon Boissons, the positive momentum for white wine continued into May 2025. IGP white wines grew by 15.8% last month, and white wines without geographic indication even rose by 23.6%. However, for still wines overall, May was another weak sales month with a 3.6% drop. The same goes for the “spirits and champagne” category, which fell by 4.9% – though champagne had surged by 35.2% year-over-year in April. SP