Volume up, value flat: Argentine wine exports in the first half of 2026

The first half of 2026 leaves Argentine wine with an uncomfortable paradox: the best start to a year since 2022 in value — US$327.6 million, up 2.3% — while the bottle, the heart of the business, sits exactly where it was a year ago. Beneath that almost motionless surface, the half was anything but dull: volume jumped +12%, bulk wine reopened European markets that stood at zero, Brazil consolidated its role as the growth engine while the United States kept dragging, and a label that has been exported for barely three quarters already outsells, UK-bound, brands with decades of history. Here is the balance sheet, number by number.

A half-year in crescendo

The year started off badly. January combined thin volume with the lowest average price of the half — US$2.84 per litre — and February also came in below the year-earlier month on value. From March the tone changed: March, April and June beat the same month of 2025 (only May fell just short), April set the half's high-water mark at US$62.1 million, and June closed at US$62.3 million with the average price back at US$3.51 per litre — exactly last June's level. The headline number is really a tale of two quarters: a first one under pressure, and a second that rebuilt price month after month.

Where did the growth come from? Not from the bottle. Bottled still wine — 89% of the business — invoiced US$290.7 million, the same figure as a year ago, on 2% fewer litres and a price up +2.2% (US$4.18/l). Practically all of the half's increase came from the secondary formats: bulk added US$5.5 million (+26%), sparkling US$1.5 million (+19%) and bag-in-box doubled its litres. The overall average price fell to US$3.10 not because Argentine wine is selling cheaper, but because the mix changed: there is a lot more bulk on the ship. A side note for a category we now track separately: non-alcoholic wine — still marginal, around US$40 thousand for the half — but with a destination list that is already widening: the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil.

The map reshuffles: Brazil pushes, the US still drags

The United States remains the top market — US$73.3 million for the half — but also the big brake: −12.7% year on year, with a dismal US$8.8 million January, the market's worst month in two years. The only good news came late: in the second quarter the market returned to growth (+4.1%), the first positive reading after twelve months running at −20.8%. Brazil, by contrast, shows no fatigue: US$54.3 million (+17.7%), the market that added the most money this half — roughly US$8 million extra — with Trivento, Mosquita Muerta and sparkling wine as spearheads. The United Kingdom followed (+11.4%) with an unmistakable signature: lots of litres at an average of US$1.96 — the mark of bulk.

Canada calls for a careful read: the cumulative figure shows +14.2%, but the story runs in reverse — a very strong start to the year that cooled in the second quarter (−11.3%). And the mid-tier left more red than green: Colombia −20.1%, Peru −10.5%, Mexico −6.2%, the Netherlands −4.2%. France (+9.5%) is a case apart: its number breathes to the rhythm of Cheval des Andes' high-end shipments — few per year, but large — a pattern worth knowing before reading its swings.

Bulk is back — and it came back to Europe

This is the half's structural fact: 33.7 million litres of bulk wine, up 57% year on year, at an average of US$0.79 per litre. The United Kingdom, the historic buyer, absorbed most of the jump (from 14.3 to 17.8 million litres). But the news is on the continent, and it is no footnote: Germany bought more in six months (4.2 million litres) than in any full year of our series, Spain more than doubled its best full year since 2022 in just one half (1.7 million litres) and Portugal, with not a single recorded purchase of Argentine bulk in our series, took a million litres. The explanation sits on the supply side: according to the OIV's first estimates, Europe's 2025 harvest was one of the two smallest this century — Spain is in its third straight year of severe drought, with one of its smallest vintages in decades, and Portugal endured erratic weather from end to end. With European cellars short, the Argentine litre at US$0.79 became competitive again.

The flip side is well known — bulk drags the average down and builds no brand — but this half-year adds a nuance that matters: the bottle did not get cheaper. Bottled still wine improved its price by +2.2%, and the overall average rebuilt month after month until June closed at last year's level. In this picture, bulk is incremental volume on top of a stable bottle base; not a replacement.

Brands: the flagships give ground

In the winery ranking, the half has a single big winner: Trivento, +34% to US$16.6 million, driven by its double bet on the UK — bottle and bulk. Catena Zapata remains far ahead (US$34.3 million, twice the runner-up) though it slips −7.4%; Luigi Bosca (+15.8%) and Salentein (+9.3%) grow steadily; Norton (−10.8%) and Finca Las Moras (−17.5%) pay for weakness in their key markets.

The more interesting story, though, is in the labels. Trivento Private Reserve, exported since September 2025 — with nearly 90% of its billing bound for the United Kingdom — invoiced US$4.1 million in its first full half-year, more than many brands with decades behind them. Cheval des Andes added +65.6% at its usual cadence of few, large shipments. Across the aisle, the flagship brands retreated as a group: CATENA −22.4%, classic TRIVENTO −29.3%, LAS MORAS −20.4%, ALAMOS −4.2%. Kirkland Signature — the label Trapiche bottles for North American retail — ended the half flat (−1.1%), despite a second quarter that tripled last year's. One caveat before reading those drops as a collapse: some of it may be customs relabelling. Bodega Catena Zapata has, since November, invoiced US$2.3 million under a name new to the records — CATENA APP — just as its mother brand slides. The data cannot say whether this is new volume or volume that previously travelled as CATENA; what it does allow is arithmetic: adding that name back, the mother brand's drop shrinks from −22% to around −6%. The bottom line stands: brand growth is concentrating in a handful of targeted bets, not in the flagships.

Malbec: ever more litres, ever less money

The INV's varietal data puts numbers on a tension the industry knows well: Malbec shipped +3.6% in litres and invoiced −4.8%. Its average price went from US$3.44 to US$3.16 per litre in a year. Since Malbec is nearly two-thirds of the varietal business, that erosion outweighs everything else combined. Growth came from the supporting cast: Cabernet Sauvignon +16.7%, red blends +33.7%, Cabernet Franc +25.8% (with litres up 39%: it is scaling up), Pinot Noir +15.1%, and a Chardonnay that pulled off the hardest trick — growing +9.9% while raising its price. Torrontés, meanwhile, lost −20.5%: among the whites, the signal came not from the emblematic variety but from Chardonnay.

The half's growth came at the extremes: competitive bulk on one side, the super-premium tier on the other. In between, the popular branded bottle is still looking for its second wind.Vinalitica analysis

What to watch next

Three things to watch in the second half. One: whether the United States confirms the second quarter's signal or resumes dragging — it is the market that decides the annual result. Two: how long Europe's bulk window stays open; if Germany, Spain and Portugal keep buying, 2026 could close with the largest volume shipped in years. Three: the price of Malbec, which is already eroding the value of two-thirds of the varietal business — every point lost there costs more than all the emerging varieties add together. The second half will tell whether this was a passing phase — or the new normal.

A note on method. Export figures: Argentine customs declarations processed by Vinalitica (FOB value in US$; first half = January–June; bulk is HS position 220429, sparkling 220410; our customs series covers 2022–2026). Varieties: INV monthly varietal wine reports (June 2026 preliminary, subject to revision). European harvest context: OIV, first estimates of world wine production 2025 (November 2025). All changes are year-on-year against the same period of 2025. Average price = FOB divided by litres.