Summer 2025 wine trends: people drink Italian, whites and sparkling wines, with an eye on the wallet

Under the umbrella, on the tables of a terrace, at the classic bar, at barbecues in the garden. Summer is also the season where there are more opportunities to meet and thus opportunities to toast, to “beat” the heat by quenching one’s thirst with a drink. And while tastes obviously touch on the personal sphere, there are two factors that seem to be taking hold among consumers when choosing a product and are no longer new: lightness and affordability. Partesa, a key player in beverage distribution and consulting for the horeca channel, with a portfolio of 7,400 references (mainly beer, wine and spirits), tells about the trends that are marking the out-of-home of summer 2025. From beer that is making a comeback, to Italian white wines and sparkling wines that are conquering for their excellent value for money, to spirits and ready-to-drink cocktails, Partesa speaks of “a summer marked by novelties and a slow, but present, recovery in consumption, albeit with choices that are increasingly careful with the wallet”. As for wine, preferences go to whites and sparkling wines, confirming the desire for lightness that is harder to find in reds. People like consuming wine by the glass while for “no alcohol” the time does not yet seem ripe. Partesa explains that “while the 2025 vintage is not particularly bright for consumption, the wine sector continues to be characterized by an interesting dynamism. The summer weather encourages orders for whites and sparkling wines: this year, preferences are going, for still wines, to single-varietal, streamlined, fresh and vertical, very gastronomic, and, for bubbles, to the very Italian Franciacorta, Alta Langa and Trentodoc, perfect in combination with the light and fresh dishes of the summer season and able to guarantee excellent value for money unlike the emblazoned Champagnes, which are now reckoning with a more limited purchasing power. After all, the economic factor, today more than ever, should not be underestimated: the complex context, still marked by uncertainty and limited spending power, is influencing consumption, orienting it toward affordable but quality wines. With a positive implication: Italians are rediscovering domestic productions”. This is, Partesa stresses, “a trend that needs to be encouraged, especially among young consumers, with less technical language and more opportunities for “by the glass” consumption, including education and the ability to drink the right but carefully. What about alcohol-free? Still early days for Italy, says Partesa where alcohol-free labels are more of a curiosity than a real market need. But the potential, even just in education, is all there”.
The trend to seek lightness and easy drinking also involves beer. Partesa highlights that “Beer is finally seeing the first signs of a turnaround after a subdued start to the year, with better performance for more accessible references, well-known brands and lower alcohol content. Undisputed queens of summer are light, refreshing beers”. Good consumption of lagers but also of some emerging styles such as Ipas or Bitter, “capable of giving a full and satisfying drink, with a moderate alcohol content balanced by appreciable olfactory notes”. But if the consumer is also looking for a distinctive feature that gives a twist to the experience, as in the case of unfiltered lagers and “hoppy lagers” with the bittering note that reinforces the feeling of freshness and depth of the drink. Unlike wine, the no-alcohol phenomenon is “still circumscribed but capable of putting up double-digit growth for more than a year”. Finally, this summer is consolidating the preference for the keg, capable of returning a superior taste experience, even in the no-alcohol segment with the 8-liter “Blade” format. Goblets and mugs are raised mainly at aperitif and mealtime, where there is now exponential growth in “beer pairing”, or the art of pairing beer with food.
Summer temperatures are also an assist for spirits. Partesa explains that “the warm season is marking, also thanks to favorable weather, a return to the consumption of spirits, which started quietly in the first quarter of the year. With important news: Gin is settling down after nearly 10 years of important growth, while the more limited purchasing power confines the super-premium references only to places where the entire proposal is high-end, shifting preferences to more affordable, mid-range products. In parallel, the growth of the aperitif moment continues, with a broadening of the assortment proposal of spirtz, which remains one of the most popular cocktails ever, thanks also to branded industry launches. Still circumscribed is the no-alcohol proposal, conveyed at the point of consumption mainly through signature cocktails, but with good growth prospects. But the real novelty is confirmed to be cocktails in kegs”.
According to Giovanni Marco Esposito, commercial director of Partesa, “what we are experiencing is a summer of slow but concrete recovery for out-of-home consumption, despite a still reduced purchasing power that weighs on the choices of Italians, not entirely counterbalanced by the consumption of foreign tourists visiting our country. However, the centrality of summer for our sector is confirmed, with a strong desire for conviviality that translates into conscious consumption: attention to value for money is growing, mid-range products are rewarded, but without renouncing either the pleasure of a cold beer, a good glass or a well-made cocktail, or the desire for novelty. The aperitif moment remains crucial, and we are confident that even the no-alcohol segment, although still a niche today, can represent an interesting opportunity for future development, starting with the beer world”.