Article by Emanuele Fiorio – Wine Meridian for I Vini del Piemonte
While Italian wine finds a fundamental commercial lifeline in Europe to compensate for the decline in non-EU markets, Piedmontese wines are seeking space in Benelux with mixed success. If the Netherlands and the Flemish region of Belgium reward the value and identity of great reds of excellence, the Piedmontese sparkling wine sector is called to reinvent itself to intercept new European consumption trends.
Italian wine exports in 2025 stopped at 7.78 billion euros, a 3.7% decrease compared to the previous year, with volumes losing 1.9% for a total of 21 million hectoliters shipped.
Three hundred million less compared to 2024: not a crash, but a sharp braking after years of records. The trade balance with foreign countries therefore drops by 4.3%, to 7.2 billion euros — and while remaining in the top 5 of the Made in Italy for trade balance, the figure is certainly not enthusiastic.
The responsibility — if we want to call it that — is almost entirely American. Italian wine exports on the US market lost 13.2%, sliding to 1.8 billion euros, while Italy remains the top supplier in volume, stable compared to 2024 (352.9 million liters, -0.2%). The tariffs introduced by Washington in 2025 and the subsequent devaluation of the dollar hit hard, especially in the second half of the year.
The rest of the non-EU world did no better: UK at -3.9%, Canada at -5.8%, Switzerland at -4.2%, Russia at -16% in value. Third markets closed overall at -6.4% (-11.6% in the second half of the year alone), for a total of 4.6 billion euros.
And Europe? Europe held up. Not a triumph — EU markets closed with a +0.5%, at nearly 3.2 billion euros — but in a year like this, even a 0.5% sounds like a small victory. “Europe mitigated the loss,” said Lamberto Frescobaldi, president of UIV. And it is not rhetoric: it is the snapshot of where Italian wine truly holds its ground.
Within the borders of the European Union, stories multiply — and they do not all go in the same direction. Germany, with 1.1 billion euros, holds steady (+0.6%). This is no surprise: it has been the main European market for Italian wine for decades, and its relationship with our whites, sparkling wines, and structured reds is too deeply rooted to yield to turbulence, though keeping in mind that this is a market where price rules and large-scale retail (GDO) plays the lion’s share.
France is growing. The transalpine +3.6% — with a value around 291 million euros in November 2025 — is largely driven by a by-now declared love for Prosecco. The French, who know their wine, are buying more and more Italian sparkling wines. For Piedmontese producers, this datum represents an interesting “Trojan horse.” Piedmont cannot and must not produce the volumes of Prosecco, but it can exploit the breach opened in the wall of French oenological nationalism to position its own flagship wines: Alta Langa for those seeking prestigious sparkling wines, great whites for restaurants, and great reds for collectors and fine wine lovers.
And then there are the Netherlands: +5.6% in 2025, the sharpest growth among the major EU markets. A datum that must be read — as will be seen — taking into account the dual nature of this country: a direct consumer, yes, but also and above all a logistical platform for re-exporting throughout Europe and beyond.
The Belgium tells a more complicated story. In November 2025, imports of Italian wine stood at 203.6 million euros, -5.1% compared to the previous year (Istat, February 2026). On the overall annual 2025 data related to wine imports, Belgian customs data paint a market worth 1.171 billion euros in total — -0.3% in value but +8.8% in volume. Translation: more wine is consumed but less is spent per bottle. The market has shifted downward.
Following up on the overview of the health status of the main European export markets, we focus on two countries in particular, which are interesting both for export and for wine tourism. Belgium and the Netherlands represent two crucial logistical hubs for Europe, yet they offer opposite consumption scenarios. While the Belgian market sees volumes grow at the expense of value, the Netherlands rewards quality and identity-driven narratives, recording excellent performances. In this multifaceted context, the great Piedmontese reds maintain solid growth, in sharp contrast to the national trend. At the same time, the decline of Asti Spumante in these territories forces the region to calibrate new strategies to intercept emerging consumption habits.
Belgium is a country with a deeply rooted wine consumption culture, close to France, influenced by the logistical rhythms of Rotterdam, and crossed by a middle class that loves wine but is tightening its purse strings. France dominates as a supplier. Then comes Italy — historically second — followed by the Netherlands, which however produces nothing: that wine arrives from abroad, is stored, processed, and shipped back. It is the re-export mechanism we previously mentioned.
For Italian wine, 2024 had already been an uphill year: a 14% drop in value to about 107 million euros. This must be read, however, after three exceptional years (2021-2023) that had inflated the comparison base. The real problem is another: Italy does not sell enough sparkling wine in Belgium. Spain outclasses us: 54 million euros against our 30 million, and in a country where the aperitif culture grows year after year, this is a handicap that weighs heavily.
In 2025 the picture became even clearer: volumes up by 8.8%, value down by 0.3%: the classic signal of a market segment sliding downward — less premium, more standard or entry-level. The Belgian consumer buys more but pays less for each bottle. This is not good news for those working on value.
There is, however, a structural dynamic that cannot be ignored. Belgium is today the 12th largest wine exporter in the world in value — despite producing very little of it, barely 2 million liters. It re-exports about 91 million liters for 359 million euros with a clear prevalence of still wines (72%) and sparkling wines (21.8%). Brexit has enormously accelerated this role as a logistical hub: Champagne and Prosecco travel through Brussels to the United Kingdom — which means that understanding Belgium’s flows means also understanding where a significant part of Italian wine ends up in Northern Europe.
Who consumes wine in Belgium, and what do they want? Over-55s represent nearly 50% of regular wine consumers in Belgium — one of the highest percentages in Europe. Young people are there, but they drink less frequently and differently: they look for occasions, experiences, and products that tell a story. Sparkling wine in pre-dinner occasions has gained ground, the aperitif has become a ritual — and the rise of the Spritz has dragged along with it interest in Italian bubbles.
Over this picture, one must overlay an internal distinction within the country that those exporting Italian wine cannot afford to ignore. Belgium is not a monolithic market: the French-speaking component — southern Brussels and Wallonia — naturally looks to France as a cultural and oenological reference, and Italian wine competes there on a terrain often marked by price pressure. Flanders tells a different story. The Flemish area expresses a demand more oriented towards discovery, with operators and wine lovers looking for territorial wines with a story to tell, recognizing a narrative dimension in the product beyond the organoleptic one. For Piedmont — with its historic denominations, its strong varietal identity, and its indissoluble link between landscape and glass — Flanders represents a structurally fertile ground, where premium positioning finds prepared interlocutors available to value it.
Looking at the entire Belgian market — not just the Italian flow — customs data analyzed by the OIVE organization show 1.171 billion euros in total at the end of 2025: -0.3% in value but +8.8% in volume. People drink more, they spend less per bottle. The market is sliding downward. This is a pressure that hits all suppliers, including Piedmont.
Regarding the sparkling wine component — which for Piedmont means mainly Asti — the picture is particularly severe. Exports of Italian sparkling wines to Belgium in 2025 lost 10%, standing at 73 million euros. This is not disaggregated data by region of origin, but the incidence of Asti in the sparkling segment towards Belgium is historically significant — and the 11.2% drop in Asti volumes at the national level is almost certainly reflected in this market.
There is, however, a long-term perspective that deserves attention. In the period 2019-2025, sales of Italian sparkling wines in Belgium and the Netherlands recorded an overall growth of about +60% (April 2026). A timeframe that includes two years of Covid, a post-pandemic surge, and now a braking — but which as a whole tells of a market that has learned to consume Italian bubbles with increasing frequency and habit.
For premium-tier Piedmontese reds — Barolo, Barbaresco, high-quality Barbera d’Asti — Belgium maintains a stable demand in high-end Horeca channels and specialized wine shops. It is not a mass market for these wines: it is a stronghold market. Belgian buyers dealing with Piedmontese denominations do so with awareness and continuity — but in absolute numbers, these are limited volumes, in a segment that resists turbulence precisely because it has never been exposed to the logic of volume.
Rotterdam is the largest port in Europe. This is not a detail: it is the premise of everything. When talking about Italian wine in the Netherlands, one must keep in mind that a consistent part of what enters the data as “export to the Netherlands” does not stay there. It gets redistributed.
The OIV certified this in a dedicated in-depth study, identifying the Netherlands among the main global hubs for wine re-export, alongside Singapore, Hong Kong, Canada, and the United Kingdom. A system that moves over 4.5 billion euros and 14 million hectoliters every year. Not just logistics: a strategic lever.
That said, the Netherlands represents one of the few markets in progression. Italian exports closed 2025 at +5.6% — the best performance among the major EU markets. Growth that is not new: over the last ten years, the weight of Dutch importers of Italian wine has tripled.
The Dutch consumer has a different profile from the Belgian one. Younger on average, more open to experimentation, more sensitive to product narratives. The demand for organic, natural, and low-alcohol wine is particularly lively — and those arriving with a label that tells of territory, sustainable practices, and identity choices often find an interlocutor ready to listen.
Data in hand, the Netherlands was the best European news for Italian wine in 2025. +5.6% in value over the previous year: the sharpest growth among the major EU markets, in a year in which almost everything else pulled back (UIV-Istat, March 2026). The internal Dutch market exists and is in real growth. For Piedmont, the Netherlands represents an interesting outlet especially for denomination red wines and quality sparkling wines. The Dutch consumer — younger on average than the Belgian one, more oriented towards experimentation — is receptive to wines that carry a story: territory, indigenous grape variety, family history. Barolo and Barbaresco have a consolidated, though numerically limited, base of enthusiasts here.
The first bimonthly period of 2026, however, interrupted the run. The Netherlands marks -8.6% at 34.27 million euros in the January-February 2026 two-month period (Istat, May 2026) — in line with the general decline of Italian exports during that period (-13.3%).
Piedmont represents the third Italian region for wine export: 1.15 billion euros in 2025, -2.2% on 2024, with a share of 14.6% on national exports. Veneto and Tuscany precede it — but the comparison must be made with due proportions. Veneto exports more than double in value, but it does so on enormously higher volumes. Piedmont sells little in terms of bottles and a lot in terms of value per bottle: Barolo, Barbaresco, Gavi, Barbera d’Asti, Alta Langa. Denominations built on decades of reputation that translate into some of the highest average prices per liter across the entire Italian sector.
The geographical structure of Piedmontese exports is rooted in the European Union. 70% of Piedmontese bottles crossing the Alps end up in an EU market, the remaining 30% in third countries (trend data based on 2024). A distribution that in 2025 proved to be a structural advantage: while extra-EU markets — the United States above all — sank under tariffs, the European stronghold held up.
The -2.2% decline, however, hides opposite dynamics among its components. Piedmontese PDO reds in the first eight months of 2025 marked +3.8% in value and +3.2% in volume — a sharp counter-trend compared to the Italian average for still wines, which lost 4.3%. Barolo, Barbaresco, Langhe Nebbiolo — the hard core of Piedmontese export — held up better than the overall numbers suggest. On the other side, Asti Spumante marked a -11.2% in volume and a -8.2% in value in the first eleven months of 2025, standing at 141 million euros. In the first half of the year alone, the datum was even worse: -16% in quantities, -12% in values, at 57 million euros.
In the general framework, Germany remains the top EU market for Piedmontese wine, but reports a moderate decline — in line with the -9% recorded on Italian sparkling wines and with the general cooling of the German market, which nevertheless remains at 1.1 billion for Italy as a whole (+0.6%). France and Sweden confirm themselves as growing markets for Piedmontese reds: the former driven by interest in great denominations and the Nebbiolo effect, the latter historically oriented toward wines of character and territorial denominations (2024 data).
In 2025, sparkling wines limited their decline to -2.5% at 2.3 billion euros; still and semi-sparkling (frizzanti) wines lost 4.3% for 5 billion euros. It is not a big difference on the surface, but it is structural: sparkling wines hold because they intercept the aperitif moment, the social ritual, the bottle to share. Still wines struggle because the meal occasion — the traditional context of wine — is contracting.
As for still reds in the US, in the second half of 2025, the drop neared 28% in bottles. In Europe, the picture is less dramatic, but the trend is clear: formal consumption occasions are thinning out, and structured reds — those that demand time, patience, precise pairings — lose audience among younger generations. The premium segment holds. The mass market plods along.
Sparkling wines despite the slowdown remain the category with the highest potential. In Belgium, sparkling wine climbs up the consumption occasions: from the aperitif to evening relaxation. The Italian challenge, however, is concrete — Spain sells more sparkling wine than the Italians in Belgium. Cava has a more accessible price and more widespread distribution. Recovering that ground requires investments in local presence, not just production quality.
Whites are growing transversally. Pinot Grigio remains the workhorse, but the real movement is deeper down: indigenous wines are starting to find attentive ears in the markets of the Netherlands and Belgium. Identity, territory, biodiversity: words that work in both languages and can find a valid response among the great whites of Piedmont as well.
High-end fine wines resist, as they always do in phases of uncertainty. Collecting, fine wine, and investment labels have their own inertia that partially insulates them from mass market turbulence. In Benelux, Barolo and Barbaresco maintain their space in high-end wine shops and premium Horeca. But here too, the average unit price tends to stabilize: demand is there, but it is not growing like a year ago.
Global slowdown but Europe holds up: In 2025, Italian wine exports fell to 7.78 billion euros (-3.7%) due to the crash of the US market (-13.2%), while EU markets weathered the blow, marking a fundamental +0.5%.
Piedmont saves itself with PDO reds: Despite an overall regional decline of 2.2% in 2025, great Piedmontese reds (Barolo, Barbaresco, Nebbiolo) grew by 3.8% in value in the first eight months of the year.
Structural crisis for Asti Spumante: Piedmontese bubbles suffered heavily from the loss of the Russian market and declines in Germany and Eastern Europe, closing the first eleven months of 2025 at -8.2% in value.
Netherlands as a strategic and dynamic hub: They represent the best EU performance in 2025 (+5.6% in value), driven by young consumers open to sustainability and by Rotterdam’s efficiency as a re-export platform.
Belgium between volumes and polarization: The Belgian market grew in volume (+8.8%) but fell in value, moving toward cheaper brackets. Flanders remains the most receptive and fertile area for premium Piedmontese wines.
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