Argentine wine sales at home and abroad are slumping, following a global trend and in line with the country’s drop in consumption across the board. While the country’s winemakers and grape farmers are scrambling, the national government has eliminated nearly 1,000 regulations and norms for the sector, aiming to boost sales — a move that the sector’s main players have varying views on.
According to the National Institute of Viticulture (INV), from January to September 2025, wine sales in Argentina fell 2.5% compared to the same period of the previous year. Wine exports from January to October 2025 decreased 6.8%.
The drop in wine consumption accelerated, but it is not new — while in 2021 Argentines drank 8.3 million hectoliters, in 2024 they bought 7.6 million hectoliters.
Sven Piederiet, the CEO of Salentein, a staple winery in Mendoza, the country’s main wine-producing province, said that there is a worldwide decline in alcohol consumption, as beer, spirits, and wine dropped in sales volume, mainly in Europe and the USA.
Argentina, he added, was struck by a broad decline in mass consumption in 2024.
While Salentein did very well over the last 10 years and was one of the few Argentine wineries that managed to grow in volume and turnover, they were also hit by the downturn in the markets over the last two years. “It’s really a new panorama for us,” he added and highlighted the competitive nature of the wine market.
“And Argentina is not [even] that competitive because of its appreciated currency, the tax burden, and high transportation costs, as well as the lack of free trade agreements compared to other countries, such as Chile and Australia,” he added.
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Two weeks ago, Deregulation Minister Federico Sturzenegger announced the repeal of 973 norms pertaining to the wine industry. The INV will now only monitor bottled wine, instead of the whole process.
“We are leaving behind the regime in which the state sought to control every step of the production process and moving towards a model that focuses exclusively on ensuring the suitability of wine for consumption,” the minister said in a post on X, adding that he aimed to give the industry “flexibility and freedom.”
Not everyone in the industry sees it the same way.
Juan Barbier, a third-generation winemaker from the De Ángeles winery in Mendoza, said that the deregulation will benefit the industry by reducing administrative burdens and potentially lowering costs. “I have friends at other wineries who tell me, ‘I’ve had the INV here from 8 in the morning until 6 in the evening,’” he said.
Similarly, Piederiet of Salentein said that the measures reduce “costs and bureaucracy.”
“The INV will no longer check that the grapes really came from Agrelo whenever the label says ‘Agrelo origin.’ Now the producer, the winemaker, or an organization could verify and guarantee the origin on their own,” he added. As several regulations have been repealed, Piederiet claims they will now need to carefully evaluate how they were implemented. “They probably made some mistakes, which would then have to be corrected,” he said.
Not everybody is excited about the new deregulations. The Winegrowers Association of Mendoza, which represents grape farmers, said in a communiqué that it received the news with “deep concern and unease,” adding that the decree “could directly affect the minimum legal security that producers have to protect the real value of their product.”
The association stated that limiting the controls to the final product will weaken the monitoring of the process from the grape harvest, preventing the collection of data needed to define wine policies. Eliminating the grape receipt, they added, means axing the “only official proof” of farmers handing grapes to winemakers. According to them, the decision to make certifications of origin, vintage, and varietal optional “weakens” the identity and value of their wines. This, they claim, can hinder “the recognition of the producer’s work and the price of the grapes,” as well as consumer confidence in the authenticity of the product they are purchasing.
“It has taken a lot for the quality of Argentine wine to be acknowledged abroad,” Rubén Flades, vice president of the Winegrowers Association of Mendoza, told the Herald.
“Today, wine is not an imported product because it is cheaper here than abroad. People buy wine in Argentina because they know there is complete control over production and processing,” Flades said. “The state is withdrawing, and that’s going to make the whole situation worse, not better.”
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