(Manfred Klimek, Editorial team)
1. More lightweight bottles. More used containers.
Winemakers worldwide have pretended for too long that glass is neutral and irrelevant. It isn’t. Weight is CO₂, prestige is emissions. Anyone who still believes that heavy bottles stand for quality today has neither done the sums nor listened. 2026 should be the year in which lightweight bottles and reusable containers no longer need to be explained. They are neither a sacrifice nor a downgrade. Wine does not need to flex its muscles.
2. Living room, kitchen – more Kabinett.
Kabinett wines: not as nostalgia, but as the future. Kabinett means: less alcohol, more drinkability, more precision. Above all, though: a flavour profile that suits a generation that does not know wine and may want to discover it. 7.5 to 9 per cent alcohol are not a weakness. They are an offering.
3. Get rid of Lugana.
Or at least: take it out of constant rotation. Lugana has become a blank canvas for everything that is convenient. A white wine that says little, apart from nuttiness, yellow plastic and the persistence of sameness. This is not bashing, it is sheer fatigue. There are more exciting wines that cost the same.
4. An electoral defeat for Viktor Orbán in April.
Not out of any existing political inclination, but out of wine-cultural necessity. Hungary is one of the most exciting wine countries in the world. Tokaj, Somló, Szekszárd, Eger, Villány – all of these have international relevance. Yet political noise drowns out the wines. 2026 could be the year in which Hungarian wine speaks more about itself again. And in which state Fidez participation in wineries should also come to an end.
5. High-end red wine prices like 1999.
The red wine crisis is real. But it is also a correction. Perhaps that is exactly what is needed: prices that are once again in proportion. Great wines may be expensive. But they do not have to be expensive to be great. 2026 could be a year in which relevant and great Bordeaux, Barolo or Brunello are once again affordable for the middle class.
6. More diversity of varieties – despite fewer consumers.
Paradoxical? Only at first glance. Precisely because fewer people are drinking wine, it needs more stories. More grape varieties, more regional identities, more departures from the global canon. Varietal density is not a problem. Monotony is.
7. More experiments with very light, dry wines (5–7%).
Not as a replacement, but as a complement. These wines are not compromises, but answers. To changing eating habits, different daily rhythms, and a different relationship with alcohol. They require skill. And courage.
8. End the search for ‘alcohol-free wine that tastes good’.
That is not progress, it is a regression. Without massive technical intervention, this idea cannot be realised. And with it, wine loses what makes it what it is. Anyone who wants to drink alcohol-free should do so – but please not at the expense of the integrity of winegrowing.
9. Save vineyards before they disappear.
In 2026, the grubbing-up of vineyard areas will be an issue. Economically logical, fatal for the landscape. Not every slope is interchangeable. Some are memory, others identity. If vines are grubbed up, then please not where the landscape is more than a production area.
10. An International of winegrowing.
Not as an association, but as a movement. A platform that speaks about prices, alcohol policy, agriculture and enjoyment. One that gets involved when wine is discussed only as a problem. Enjoyment is not a sideshow. It is culturally, socially and politically relevant.