Argentine bubbles: domestic market cools as exports enjoy their best decade
Domestic sparkling wine consumption fell 39% in a decade; exports grew 55%, and 2025-2026 is running faster still. An anatomy of the business through INV and customs data: Chandon alone accounts for half of all export value.
Sparkling wine is the happy exception in Argentine wine: while domestic consumption of bubbles fell more than 40% in a decade, exports grew 55%. This analysis crosses the INV's special report (October 2025) with our customs data — which already cover full-year 2025 and the opening months of 2026 — to put names to a business the official report covers only in aggregate.
The scissor effect: a decade of divergence
The INV's numbers draw a pair of scissors. The domestic market slid from 458,000 hectolitres in 2015 to 264,000 in 2025: down more than 40% in a decade. Exports travelled the opposite path: +54.9% between 2015 and 2024, to 54,042 hl worth US$25.3 million — its best figure in more than ten years, according to the INV. Argentine sparkling wine no longer depends on the local toast: one in every six litres is now sold abroad.
The geography of the business is stark: Mendoza accounts for 98.4% of export volume, and a single department — Luján de Cuyo — ships 57% of all the sparkling wine Argentina sends abroad. And despite the collapse in local consumption, the industrial base is not shrinking: 143 establishments are licensed to make sparkling wine, 29 more than a decade ago. The explanation lies abroad.
2025 and 2026: what the official report doesn't yet show
The INV report runs through 2024. Our customs data already cover what comes next: in 2025, Argentina exported 49,912 hl worth US$22.9 million — +17% by volume versus 2024, the second-best year in our series — with 113 active exporters shipping to 66 destinations. And 2026 has opened faster still: US$7.3 million shipped between January and May, 14% ahead of the same period in 2025.
The domestic market also draws on the INV's own sources: the complete annual report for 2025 (published in April 2026) and the figures through May 2026 (provisional data). Domestic sales closed 2025 at 264,041 hl, down -4.9% from 2024 — a much milder decline than the previous year's -25.4% collapse. And in the first five months of 2026, domestic sparkling wine consumption grew +4.1% versus the same period in 2025 (76,685 hl), holding a stable 2.7% share of total wine consumed in the country. The scissors haven't closed, but the rhythm has changed: the domestic market appears to have braked its fall just as exports accelerate.
A note on method. Our customs perimeter (HS heading 220410) covers grape-based sparkling wine. The INV additionally counts “compound” sparkling wine (espumoso compuesto) — an aromatised product that travels under other tariff headings: 11,047 hl of the 54,042 hl recorded in 2024. Net of that product, customs and the INV differ by less than 1%. The 2025 and 2026 domestic-market figures come from the INV's own commercialisation reports — the annual one (full-year 2025) and the monthly one (through May 2026, provisional and subject to revision).
Who exports the bubbles: a game of French houses
The official report publishes no names; customs does. And the figure is striking: Chandon exported US$10.5 million in 2025 — almost half (46%) of the total value of Argentine sparkling wine — to 12 countries, across its flagship label, Baron B and Mercier. Add Mumm (Pernod Ricard), and more than half of the Argentine bubbles shipped worldwide (53% of value) are dispatched by two houses of French origin. And it is not only about volume: Chandon sells its sparkling wine at US$6.24 a litre, more than double the big volume bottlers — Pascual Toso, Cepas Argentinas — reinforcing the premium profile of the leading houses. Behind them comes the Argentine pack: Toso (which also exports Federico de Alvear), Cepas with Omnium, Salentein, Grupo Peñaflor, the Zuccardi family's La Agrícola with Santa Julia and Dante Robino with Novecento.
The picture is not new: it is the maturing of a bet placed 65 years ago. Chandon de Argentina, founded in Agrelo in 1959-60, was the first Moët & Chandon subsidiary outside France. The group chose Mendoza to make bubbles when Argentine sparkling wine was a purely domestic business; today that subsidiary accounts for half of all exports.
Destinations: Brazil brings the volume; France and the United States, the price
In 2025, according to our customs data, three markets account for almost half of export value: the United States (20.7%), Brazil (16.6%) and France (10.4%). But volume and price tell different stories: Brazil concentrates the volume — 23.4% of litres — but at the lowest price, US$3.25 a litre; whereas the United States, France, Mexico, Panama and even neighbouring Uruguay pay between US$5 and 6.2. More than a geographical map, it is a positioning map: one big volume buyer (Brazil) and a premium shelf spread across several continents.
What gets exported? Dry sparkling wine, above all (58.5% of volume, INV 2024), almost entirely in bottle (99.9%). Sweet styles are the fastest-growing segment (+68% in 2024). And rosé is no longer a curiosity: in 2025, one in every seven dollars of sparkling wine exported is rosé (15% of value), and it fetches a better price than the rest: US$5.94 per litre against 4.41.
France, the cradle of Champagne, is the third-largest buyer of Argentine sparkling wine.Vinalitica · customs 2025
What to watch now
For exporters, the lesson is twofold: sparkling wine is the segment of Argentine wine where external demand is genuinely pulling — near-record volumes, prices steady at around US$4.6 per litre — and where premium finds markets paying above US$5. For importers, the map of players is short and legible: one dominant house (Chandon), a pack of wineries with established brands, and, further down, a cooperative — La Riojana — playing the organic card, with sparkling wines shipped under labels such as Ecológica and Tilimuqui. The numbers in this article come from the source the trade itself uses: customs data, updated every month.
Future articles will apply the same logic to other segments: the official report for the frame, customs data for the names.
Sources — Domestic market, 2015-2024 series, establishments, types and destinations 2024: INV, Informe Especial Vino Espumoso (special report on sparkling wine, October 2025). Exports 2022-2026, exporters, brands, prices by destination and rosé: Argentine customs (Vinalitica), HS heading 220410 (grape-based sparkling wine; the INV additionally includes compound sparkling wine — 11,047 hl in 2024 — under other headings; net of that product, the two sources differ by less than 1% in 2024). Chandon history: Moët Hennessy and specialist press (founded in Agrelo, 1959-1960; first Moët & Chandon subsidiary outside France). 2026: January–May (partial). 2025 domestic market and 2026 year-to-date: INV, Informe Anual Mercado Interno de Vinos 2025 (April 2026) and Informe Mensual Mercado Interno de Vinos — May 2026 (provisional data).