Pérez Cambet: ‘THC and CBD drinks are the biggest threat to the wine industry’
Speaking at Vinexpo Explorer Mendoza 2025, Argentina, Martín Pérez Cambet, senior managing partner of VINOANALYSIS warned that THC and CBD drinks posed the biggest threat to the global wine industry facing, “not… a cyclic downturn, but a structural crisis” catalysed by climate change, economic instability and consumption decline.
Martin Pérez Cambet, senior managing partner at VINOANALYSIS, outlined what he believed to be the key challenges facing the wine industry, in a talk called ‘Navigating the Winds of Change: Challenges and Opportunities in the Foreign Market’ last week at the opening conference for Vinexpo Explorer Mendoza 2025 in Mendoza, Argentina.
“The wine business is in danger,” he began. “It’s always been in crisis. Probably from the ‘80’s up to last year, we were living a dream. Well, the dream is over, but we need to know how to get through this period of time.”
Speaking in Mendoza’s Espacio Arizu venue, Pérez Cambet stressed that the industry was experiencing, not merely a “cyclic downturn, but a structural crisis” fuelled by climate change, economic headwinds and shifting consumer habits. He explained: “The global wine market is facing a confluence of unprecedented challenges that define a structural crisis, not merely a cyclical recession.
“For an industry whose identity is deeply rooted in tradition and consistency, climate, instability, a profound shift in consumer behaviors and economic pressures, are forcing a critical and immediate revaluation of the business model.”
Inflation troubles
But, he said the biggest threats to the wine industry are THC and CBD drinks. “We really need to pay attention to those,” he added, with younger consumers prioritising wellness and low-and-no options. Premium spirits and RTD companies also provide “fierce competition”.
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“The demand shock is that consumers, especially Gen Z and millennials. are drinking less. They might be drinking better or more in a few years, we hope so, but right now they are not, so there are surpluses in the wine stocks,” he said.
He also spoke on the post-pandemic surge in inflation across the globe: “[It’s] something that is very common to Argentina, but most of you probably don’t know how to live with inflation, and that has been a nightmare for the wine industry, because the more you need to spend on your housing or your renting or your car, the less you’re going to spend on wine.
“The bottom line, increased operation cost often cannot be passed on to the price sensitive consumer. If you look at the figures in butter or milk or oil, you’re spending probably 40% more on your groceries. In wine, no more than 5%. Wine did not increase prices, not even now,with the tariffs in the US – so this is a new thing.”
Quality wine production ‘not enough’
He then offered the audience of wine buyers words of advice: “Focus on price. Forget about the product placement and promotion, it’s price, price, price.”
He rounded off the talk on a note of hope: “We know we are in danger, but we need to look at the opportunity. It’s not the strongest of the species that survives, not the most intelligent that survives – it’s the one that adapts to the change – so we need to work and to adapt to the change.
“We need to know exactly what we are selling, to sell more; who we are selling to, to sell more. To survive in the Darwin mode, quality wine production alone is not enough. Wines must go beyond production.”
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