2026-08-28
Russian wine took up more shelf space in stores across Russia in the first half of 2026, but that broader presence did not translate into stronger sales, according to a retail audit by Roskachestvo and separate market sales data cited by Kommersant.
The audit found that Russian labels accounted for 37.55% of wine offerings in neighborhood convenience stores in January through June, up from 25.8% a year earlier, an increase of 11.75 percentage points. The share also rose in other retail formats, reaching 29.67% in hypermarkets, up 8.1 points year over year, 24.57% in supermarkets, up 7.1 points, 28.97% in alcohol-focused stores, up 5.32 points, and 37.5% in discount stores, up 3.7 points. Specialized wine shops remained the lowest category, with Russian wine at 16.5% of assortment, up 1.3 points from a year earlier.
Roskachestvo said the results show Russian wine now occupies more than one-third of the average assortment in retail chains it studied, well above the 20% minimum share under discussion for stores selling wine. In April, Deputy Industry and Trade Minister Roman Chekushov said a “Russian wine shelf” rule with a minimum 20% local share was expected to take effect on March 1, 2027.
The retail audit was conducted by experts from Roskachestvo’s Russian Wine Guide project together with research agency BLG-Service. It covered 349 outlets from 53 retail chains in 15 Russian regions and measured the share of Russian wine by SKU, or individual product references, along with in-store placement and promotional support.
Roskachestvo deputy head Elena Sarattseva said the market had largely moved past the issue of physical availability. In the agency’s view, the central challenge is no longer getting Russian wine onto shelves, but persuading shoppers to buy it repeatedly. BLG-Service chief executive Alexei Bulgar made a similar point, saying shelf share alone does not ensure stable sales growth and that navigation, display, and promotion inside stores now play a larger role.
That gap between assortment and demand showed up in sales data cited by Kommersant from market participants. Those figures indicated that Russian wine’s share of total wine sales in Russia slipped to 59.5% in the first half of 2026 from 60.2% a year earlier, a decline of 0.7 points. In sparkling wine, the Russian share fell to 70.9% from 71.7%, down 0.8 points.
Sales volumes also diverged between still and sparkling products. Russian wine sales fell 4.9% year over year to 17.02 million decaliters in the first half, down by about 0.88 million decaliters, or roughly 8.8 million liters. Russian sparkling wine performed better, with sales rising 2.3% to 7.38 million decaliters, an increase of about 1.7 million liters.
The data point to a market where store assortment has expanded faster than consumer demand, especially for still wine. Roskachestvo said Russian wine has its strongest commercial position in the segment priced up to 800 rubles on the shelf, where domestic products account for the main share of sales. The agency also said regional retail chains have been able to increase local wine offerings partly because large Russian producers can work with them directly, cutting logistics costs and helping stores offer more competitive prices than some imported alternatives.
Regional chains posted some of the highest shelf shares in the audit. In Sverdlovsk region, the share of Russian wine in the assortment of some surveyed chains reached 72%, while some Far East chains reached 63%. Among hypermarkets, the Far Eastern chain Samberi led with 63%. In neighborhood stores, the Ural chain Kirovsky reached 72%. In specialized alcohol stores, Gorilka also reached 72%. In supermarkets, Krasny Yar led with 51%.
Moscow and the surrounding region stood out less for share and more for breadth of selection. Auditors counted 421 Russian SKUs in Auchan hypermarkets in the capital region and 412 in Globus. At the other end of the market, some specialized formats carried much less domestic wine. Roskachestvo said Russian labels represented 9% of the assortment at SimpleWine shops and 14% at KuulKlever’s Otdokhni stores.
The study found that mass retail formats have already cleared the proposed 20% threshold by a wide margin in most cases. All 13 neighborhood store chains in the audit exceeded that level. All surveyed hypermarkets did as well. Supermarkets were less uniform, with some chains still below 20% at the time of the audit, including Bakhetle, Dobryanka, Miratorg, and Azbuka Vkusa. Among 14 specialized alcohol chains, only KuulKlever remained clearly below the mark.
Industry groups and retailers have given mixed responses to the planned quota. The Association of Retail Companies said many federal chains already meet the expected standard in practice, but it also argued that Russian producers would need enough supply across multiple price categories to support a mandatory national minimum. Alexander Lipilin, executive director of wine trading company Fort, told Kommersant that a fixed 20% rule would be most difficult and least effective for wine boutiques, especially stores built around specific styles or countries.
The Roskachestvo audit and the sales figures measure different things, which limits direct comparison. The audit tracks the share of Russian wine in store assortment by SKU, while the sales data reflect Russian wine’s share of total purchases. The retail coverage also differs. Roskachestvo’s study is based on an identified sample of stores and chains, while the sales figures cited by Kommersant came from market participants rather than a published official statistical table.
Even with that caveat, both sets of data point in the same direction: Russian producers have gained shelf access in most retail formats, but the next stage of competition appears to depend more on consumer choice than on physical presence alone. Sparkling wine has held up better than still wine, suggesting shoppers have been more willing to keep buying domestic bubbly even as overall wine demand in Russia has weakened.