The global wine trade,
decoded.

Wine customs data: the core of Vinalitica

Every time a case of Argentinian Malbec clears Brazilian customs, a bottle of Champagne arrives in Lima, or a container of Spanish Tempranillo lands in New York, an official customs declaration is recorded: value, volume, HS code (Harmonized System), origin, destination, and — depending on the market — the brand, format, identified buyer and seller.

These declarations are grouped under the HS 2204 code (wine of fresh grapes), with subcategories: 2204.10 (sparkling wines), 2204.21 (bottled wines ≤ 2L), 2204.22 (wines 2L to 10L), 2204.29 (bulk wines > 10L), 2204.30 (musts). Each subcategory reveals a distinct market segment with its own unit pricing and dynamics.

Each customs authority has its own format, its own publication delays, its own standardization. Vinalitica centralizes these heterogeneous flows, enriches them with wine sector expertise (grape, format, packaging), and presents them via dashboards, maps, and usable APIs — something no generalist tool like Panjiva or ITC TradeMap can do.

Detailed customs coverage

• 16 detailed import markets: USA, Brazil, Mexico, Russia, Peru, Vietnam, India, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama, Colombia, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Nigeria, Bolivia — each import with brand, unit price, volume, identified importer
• 2 detailed export markets: Argentina (1,200+ wineries) and Chile, with the same depth
• 1.5M+ accumulated transactions, updated monthly
• 20,000+ detailed brands recognized in the declarations
• Macro complement: UN Comtrade + OIV for the global view (218 countries, production, consumption, vineyard area) — useful for context, not the core product

Finding wine importers: the Vinalitica method

Traditionally, a wine exporter wanting to identify importers in a new market had three options: (1) hire a consultant for €15-30k, (2) work the international trade show circuit like ProWein or Vinexpo for years, (3) manually navigate generalist databases without sector information.

With VinaLink, the process accelerates dramatically:

• Segment the target market: filter the 5,800+ importers across the 16 covered markets by purchase volume, wine style, and price range.
• Identify real flows: every importer has a profile with current suppliers, purchase volumes, and historical trajectory.
• Map the exporter side too: 10,300+ suppliers with their actual customer book — the opposite-side information that very few tools offer.
• Detect key movements: alerts when an importer loses a long-term supplier or when an exporter gains a new customer — perfect timing to step in.
• Contact decision-makers: with premium plans, access to verified LinkedIn and email contacts of the commercial / purchasing lead.

An Argentinian winery preparing a Peruvian market campaign can thus obtain, in 30 minutes, a qualified shortlist of active premium importers, with brand-by-brand purchase history and key contacts — work that would take months via traditional methods.

Why specializing in wine makes the difference

Generalist tools like Panjiva or ImportYeti aggregate customs declarations across all industries without sector structuring. Result: an entry like "Cabernet" might be a wine, a coffee brand, or a ship's name. An entry "Red wine 2022" doesn't automatically link to the producing winery or the grape variety.

Vinalitica applies a sector enrichment layer: we reconcile commercial names with actual wineries, identify grape varieties (Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon, Tempranillo, Chardonnay, etc.), distinguish formats (bottled, bulk, sparkling), validate unit prices against the plausible range for the segment. It's this wine expertise work that turns raw customs data into actionable commercial intelligence.