What do the latest consumer trends tell us?
Rafael Del Rey was one of the guest speakers invited to open the 4th edition of the Sparkling Wine Forum, which took place in Reims on 19 May. He delivered a highly acclaimed talk, and Sparkling News went to meet him!
Rafael Del Rey is a private consultant specialised in international wine markets and analysis focusing on consumer trends in order to assist the companies, the growers and the institutions in taking better decisions. His presence in the wine industry for more than 21 years now makes him a reliable source. After working in associations of wineries in Rioja, Spain he decided to create, the Spanish Observatory of Wine Market to follow market trends with the goal of putting the consumer in the center of the research.
Rafael Del Rey’s work on consumer habits is based on official data collected from surveys or tax authorities in more than 190 countries. His experience in terms of trend analysis makes him capable of making comparisons of international markets and putting into light the best strategies to adopt.
According to Rafael Del Rey « Sparkling Wine is one of the four main categories of wine trade and is one of the most relevant categories. It represents one third of total wine trade in value terms. » Based on his analysis, sparkling wine is the leading category in terms of growth with big producers like France, Italy and Spain. Observing the consumer interest in Prosecco this sparkling wine seems to be what consumers tend to prefer, they seem to be looking for fresh wines, bubbles, something popular. Even if sparkling wine is suffering the crisis like other wine categories, it’s relevant and less impacted than still wines.
The crisis is hitting hard and highlighting the differences between markets
Since 2022, the wine industry is suffering a major worldwide crisis but it’s not the first time that a crisis takes place in this market. In the 1990s while sales were declining, Rafael Del Rey explains that a « French paradoxe » took place. In the US in the middle of the crisis consumers continued to import wines from France thanks to its image of elegance and taste. Nowadays, the crisis we are suffering is totally different. « For the first time I am seeing that the most affected regions and wines are the traditional red wines in traditional producing regions like Bordeaux. This is new and it means that some things are changing in the consumers’ habits. Now it seems like consumers are interested in fresher wines, sweeter wines and drinks based on wines like Aperol Spritz. Other wines are also impacted by this phenomenon. So the advice of Rafael Del Rey is « to follow very carefully what is happening in the market. »
During the crisis while Italy and France chose to reduce the bottle prices in order to keep up the sales in volume, Spain chose to increase the bottle prices with a small volume to sell wich led to the worst loss of sales. They always thought about repositioning Cava in the sparkling wine market and try to give it a better image among the top quality sparkling wines in the world. « It seems that reducing prices to become more attractive has been the strategy followed by France and Italy but it’s completely different from the strategy that figures tell us about Spain. » According to Rafael Del Rey, Spain is maintaining the idea of repositioning Cava on the market, but he thinks that this is probably not the best time to do it since the market is in the middle of a global crisis.
A disappointing first quarter of 2026
In his presentation at the Sparkling Wine Forum 2026, Rafael Del Rey quickly mentioned the figures he collected for the first quarter of 2026 on the US market which are not a good sign. The first quarter of the year in the US is showing a further decline in imports that is affecting volume and values. For Rafael Del Rey « This is a point of concern because it might be the effect of the higher tarrifs imposed last summer. But it also might be the effect of lower consumption, it’s something that we will have to track very carefully. » On the other hand, France and Italy seem to be doing well by maintaining their strategies. Meanwhile Spain has lost more than a half its sales on the US market in the first quarter of 2026. « It’s really difficult to know what will happen along this year but we should distinguish between the structural problem and the temporary problems. The increase of US tarrifs is probably a temporary problem to which we will know how to react. On the other side, the structural problem might be the decline of consumption. We will have to see how those two factors affect sales. »
New opportunities to be explored in untapped markets
Even if some markets like the US tend to become difficult to reach, other markets are getting more and more interesting for export. Due to the tax rise in the US, Canada has emerged as a great opportunity for sales. There are also interesting markets in Latin America like Mexico, Dominican Republic, Colombia etc… According to Rafael Del Rey, there are also very interesting opportunities in some African countries although they are small markets. « In reality, it very much depends, the other day i was looking at some figures from Portugal wich is a little bit increasing their sales of sparkling wines. And even if they are not specialized in sparkling, they are increasing their export of sparkling wine to Russia, a very difficult market nowadays. » Asia is also bringing new opportunities. Everything depends on the type of product. Still what the consumers tend to like are sweet, fresh and tasty sparkling wines.
What surprises Rafael Del Rey is that France increased its imports of Italian sparkling wines by 23% in the midst of the 2025 crisis. In his view, several factors are at play, the first of which relates to consumers. Indeed, French and international consumers prefer sweet and smooth sparkling wines, which is exactly what Prosecco offers. But it is not just Prosecco consumption that is rising; Crémant is also becoming increasingly popular in France. The surge in Spritz consumption is another key factor. This new trendy drink encourages consumers to try it, order it and drink it on a daily basis. Rafael Del Rey also explains that price is a growth factor. In his view, the combination of taste, product accessibility, popular image and price is the key to this success. He believes there are opportunities in many countries and across many market segments, but the key is to focus on the consumer’s perspective.
The new trend in cocktails and Spritz
Talking about new trends and tendencies, Spritz is something that should be watched carefully as people tend to consume it more and more as time goes by. « I realized the importance of Spritz when an Italian colleague of mine told me that 3 out of 5 liters of Prosecco were going for cocktails. » After hearing that, Rafael tried to analyse the consumption of Spritz with other experts, at the end they found out that it was true. It seems that the success of prosecco is mainly due to these cocktails. Aperol Spritz is more and more seen on tables in patios worldwide, it’s very popular.
While walking in the center of Madrid, Rafael came upon a « Spritzeria » a business selling different types of Spritz. Talking about alternative drinks, low-alcohol wines and other cocktails are getting more and more attention. According to Rafael « this phenomenon of cocktails is not only occuring with sparkling wines but with all types of wines. »
Putting the consumer at the heart of production
What Rafael Del Rey is trying to indulge with his work and analysis is to change the way of thinking in the industry, he wants to show that the consumers’ point of view is very important and rich, producers must listen and look at the consumption trends. « Making wine is something so beautiful and magical that winemakers have worried more about making wine than consumption, this lack of information on consumers has always been a problem. » But Rafael is reassuring, this point of view of the « production first » is changing. As part of his job, he is witnessing new worries about consumers and trends. This is the difference between this crisis and the other ones before, producers seem to react faster than ever. This fast reaction is the reason why we see a big amount of new drinks on the market right now, it feels like a revolution. Producers are gaining the ability to react to consumer trends. As fast as the reaction is, the better results a company will get.
The main reason behind the presence of Rafael Del Rey at Sparkling Wine Forum was to try to show his work, the data that he collected and talk with other specialists, producers, growers or companies to collect their point of view on the evolution of the market. « My expertise both comes from the data collected and the experience of the producers, and that is very interesting for me. » And even if Rafael Del Rey is talking about a crisis and seeing relatively declining figures he always tries to stay positive « there are opportunities in new markets and opportunities in new products, the most important thing is following what the market tells us about wine taste, wine trade and wine consumption and improving our distribution capacities to bring our wines to our consumers »