The New Rules of Wine Importing

Wine importers are adapting to volatility with sharper logistics, closer partnerships, and tighter cash management…
The wine trade has spent the last year in a familiar squeeze. Demand remains uneven, tariffs are still unpredictable, the dollar keeps moving, and distributor reorganizations continue to ripple across the market. Instead of battling uncontrollable market forces, some wine importers have accepted this new reality—and have started developing new ways to operate in this shifting environment. Importers that are holding their ground, and in some cases growing, are rethinking the fundamentals: how they get to market, how they support sell-through, how they finance inventory in a higher-cost world, and how they reduce friction for their partners. 

As a result, a new importer playbook is taking shape, and it focuses more on disciplined execution than the hunt for more brands. That mindset is increasingly explicit among the importing companies that are successfully weathering the storm. Alexander Michas, the president and COO of Vintus, sees the current environment as a sorting mechanism that rewards focus and follow-through.

“The exceptional will come out stronger,” he says. “The brands that truly matter in the market, the accounts that adapt quickly to their consumers, the wholesalers who utilize new tools to improve their operations, all companies that double down on customer engagement—they will grow stronger.”