Someone recently mentioned to me that wine has changed since 2022.

I do not drink, so I could not answer the question from personal experience. But it made me curious.

Has wine actually changed?

The answer, perhaps, is that the wine in the glass has not suddenly become something different. But almost everything around it has.

Since 2022, the global wine industry has been dealing with a combination of changing weather, declining consumption, changing consumer preferences and an industry increasingly having to reconsider what it grows, what it produces and who it produces it for.

Australia is right in the middle of that change.

The numbers tell an interesting story

Australia’s 2026 winegrape crush was the smallest in more than 25 years.

A bad growing season does not explain it. Wine Australia says the reduction reflects a much bigger adjustment taking place across the industry as global demand for wine continues to decline.

Globally, wine production in 2024 fell to its lowest level in more than 60 years. At almost exactly the same time, global wine consumption also dropped to levels not seen since the early 1960s.

Production is only half of it. People are drinking differently too.

What we are growing is changing

Perhaps one of the most interesting shifts is happening in the vineyard.

Between 2022 and 2024, Australia’s crush of Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon dropped by more than 30 percent. Meanwhile, varieties including Pinot Noir, Grenache, Sangiovese and Montepulciano moved in the other direction. Among white varieties, Prosecco and Riesling increased.

That does not mean Australia has suddenly stopped loving Shiraz. It does suggest that growers and winemakers are responding to a market that looks different from the one they were selling into a decade ago.

Then there is the climate

Wine is agriculture. Every bottle begins with a crop, and crops respond to temperature, rainfall, frost, drought, disease and the timing of the seasons.

In 2023 and 2024, vineyards around the world experienced everything from drought and extreme heat to excessive rainfall, storms and disease pressure.

Those conditions do not just determine how many grapes are harvested. They can influence when grapes are picked, sugar levels, acidity, flavour development and ultimately the style of wine a winemaker has available to create.

So when someone says wine does not taste the way it used to, there may actually be something behind that observation. Not because someone flicked a switch in 2022. Because the environment in which wine is being grown and sold is changing.

But consumers have changed too

This may be the most important part of the story.

People are reconsidering their relationship with alcohol. Moderation has become more mainstream. Alcohol free and lower alcohol choices are more visible. Younger consumers do not necessarily drink wine in the same way previous generations did.

Cost of living pressures matter too. A bottle of wine is competing not only with other bottles of wine but with beer, spirits, cocktails, alcohol free alternatives and an enormous number of other discretionary purchases.

That changes what wineries put on shelves.

What does this mean for wine regions?

For places such as Margaret River, the wine industry is tourism.

It is cellar doors, restaurants, accommodation, weddings, tours, events, employment and regional identity. Which means changes in the way people drink eventually become changes in the way people travel.

The interesting question for wine regions may no longer be, what wine do visitors want to drink?

It may become, what experience do visitors want when wine is only one part of the reason they are here?

That opens the door to food, storytelling, art, agriculture, nature, provenance, alcohol free experiences and a much broader definition of what visiting a wine region actually means.

So has wine changed since 2022?

Not overnight.

But the climate is changing. The market is changing. Consumers are changing. The grapes being planted and harvested are changing.

And perhaps what we are witnessing is a wine industry beginning to work out what its next chapter looks like.