France is drinking more beer than wine for the first time as the growing cost of living changes drinking habits among young people, figures show.
According to the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV), the French drank 22 million hectolitres of wine last year, just shy of the 22.1m hectolitres of beer reported by Brewers of France.
That figure reflected a 70-year low for wine consumption, dropping 3.2 per cent from 2024, in what the authors said was a long-term downward trend going back several decades.
While France remained the largest European consumer of wine in 2025, its figures were down 7.2 per cent from the five-year average.
The wider pattern was put down to a mixture of difficult economic conditions in mature wine markets and changing behaviour between the generations, experts said.
Overall consumption was at its lowest in over 60 years, while US tariffs piled pressure onto the global wine trade, according to the OIV.
“What we can see in the 2025 data is a sector that’s reacting to real-time impacts of U.S. tariff policies, but also adapting to some longer-term changes in terms of climate and consumption,” said OIV Director General John Barker.
Cheaper beer meanwhile kept steady in France, sitting just over the rate of wine consumption, according to the French brewery association Brasseurs de France.
Consumption of non-alcoholic beer also increased 12 per cent last year, with 600,000 litres consumed last July and August alone.
These changes could be driven in part by changes in how people get together for meals and other rituals connected with drinking, according to analysts.
Sociologist Joan Cortinas told France Télévisions: “Society has become more tertiary. Often people do not even eat properly at midday anymore.”
The OIV did not yet have clear indications on the possible impact of the Iran war on the wine sector, but would expect some effect due to consequences for consumer sentiment and shipping, Barker said.
The sector was adapting by focusing more on wine tourism and sustainability while also developing lower-alcohol products, he said.
Italy was the world’s largest wine producer in 2025, making 47.3m hectolitres, just ahead of France with 35.9Mhl and Spain with 29.4Mhl, the OIV reported previously.
