U.S. wine wholesalers sold 8% less wine by volume through September

U.S. wine wholesalers sold 8% less wine by volume in the 12 months that ended in September, according to SipSource data released by the Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America on Wednesday, October 28.

The figures cover shipments from wholesalers to bars, restaurants and other commercial accounts in the United States during the period from October 2025 through September 2026. The data do not measure final consumer purchases, and the methodology excludes certain control states, a limitation that WSWA noted in its release.

The decline points to a weaker wine market at the wholesale level, but the report also showed that demand was not moving evenly across all categories. Among wines priced at $9 or more, some segments posted revenue growth even as the broader market lost volume.

White blends led the gains in that price tier, with revenue up 8.1% from a year earlier. Malbec revenue rose 6.4%, and sauvignon blanc increased 4.5%. Other categories moved in the opposite direction. Merlot posted a 12.4% revenue decline, zinfandel fell 8.7%, and red blends dropped 8.2%.

WSWA did not publish absolute dollar amounts or shipment volumes for those categories, so the release does not show how much money or how many cases were gained or lost. That also limits direct comparisons across segments beyond the percentage changes.

The figures are based on wholesaler depletions, which track product leaving distributor warehouses for on-premise and off-premise accounts. That makes the data useful for judging how retailers and hospitality operators are replenishing inventory, but it is not the same as measuring what consumers bought at checkout or ordered in restaurants.

The report also cautioned that revenue changes reflect a mix of factors, including volume, pricing and shifts in product mix. A category can post higher revenue even if it sells fewer bottles, for example, if more buyers move into higher-priced labels. Because of that, the revenue gains in white blends, malbec and sauvignon blanc do not necessarily mean those segments expanded in volume.

Even with that caveat, the category split suggests that wholesalers and suppliers are dealing with a more selective market. Styles that have been tied to freshness or newer consumer preferences, such as sauvignon blanc and some white blends, held up better in revenue terms than more established red categories like merlot and zinfandel. Red blends, a major commercial segment in many portfolios, also weakened.

The data did not include a comparable quarter-by-quarter wine trend, which makes it harder to tell whether the 12-month decline worsened late in the period or reflected steadier weakness across the year. The release focused on the annual change through September.

For producers, importers and distributors, the numbers offer a guide to where pricing and assortment decisions may be working and where they are under pressure. An 8% drop in overall volume is a broad contraction, but the diverging revenue performance among $9-and-up wines suggests that buyers in the trade are still making targeted purchases rather than cutting back evenly across the category.

WSWA said the data came from SipSource, its platform for tracking wholesale beverage alcohol activity. The organization represents wine and spirits wholesalers across the country. Its latest wine figures add to signs that the market is under pressure at the distribution level, with fewer cases moving overall even as some segments continue to attract spending.