Italian wine exports to the United States rose sharply in the third quarter of 2026, but the rebound was not enough to erase losses built up earlier in the year, according to provisional European Union trade data analyzed by the Wine Observatory of Unione Italiana Vini, the Italian wine industry group.
Between July and September, Italian wine shipments to the U.S. increased by nearly 17% in value from a year earlier and by 6.6% in volume, Unione Italiana Vini said in a statement released Oct. 16. The group said the summer improvement helped narrow the decline for the first nine months of the year, but exports to the U.S. still remained below 2025 levels on a cumulative basis.
From January through September, Italian wine exports to the U.S. reached €1.27 billion, down 6% from the same period last year. That marked an improvement from the 14% drop recorded in the first half of 2026. The shift means the cumulative rate improved by 8 percentage points after the third quarter, reflecting a stronger summer period in Italy’s biggest non-European wine market.
The U.S. rebound was a major factor behind a broader recovery in Italian wine exports to destinations outside the European Union during the quarter. Unione Italiana Vini said exports to non-EU markets grew by nearly 8% in value in the July-to-September period. Even so, the year-to-date figures remained negative. In the first nine months of 2026, extra-EU exports totaled about €3.3 billion and more than 740 million liters, down 3% in value from the same period in 2025.
The industry group said the improvement in the U.S. market was especially visible in red wines. During the third quarter, sales of Italian red wines in the United States rose 33% in value, while the average price increased by more than 15%. Across all wine categories, the average value of exports to the U.S. market increased 9.5% in the quarter, according to the data cited by the group.
That price movement, however, does not by itself show stronger end demand. Average export value can reflect both pricing and the mix of products shipped. Unione Italiana Vini also warned against reading the quarterly increase as clear proof that U.S. consumption has recovered.
Lamberto Frescobaldi, president of Unione Italiana Vini, said the data should be treated with caution because they are provisional and because the recovery may reflect inventory rebuilding by American importers and distributors rather than a broad increase in sales to consumers.
“The provisional data are positive compared with a disastrous summer of 2025, but to speak of a normalization of the market we need to wait,” Frescobaldi said in the statement.
He added that the U.S. market was still trailing its earlier levels despite the recent bounce. Compared with the third quarter of 2024, Italian wine exports to the United States were still down 10%, according to the group. Unione Italiana Vini also cited figures from SipSource, a platform that tracks distributor sales to retailers and restaurants, showing sales of Italian wines in the U.S. down 5.3% since the start of the year.
That comparison matters because shipment data and depletion data do not measure the same thing. Export figures track what is sent from Italy to foreign markets, while SipSource tracks wine moving from distributors to points of sale. A rise in exports can therefore reflect restocking in the supply chain even if retail or restaurant demand remains weak.
Frescobaldi said the latest numbers still carry some positive meaning for Italian producers. In his view, the summer recovery shows that U.S. buyers continue to see Italian wine as important, with red wines leading the improvement. His comments suggest that while the sector is not yet calling a full recovery, it sees the U.S. market as stabilizing after a much weaker period.
The figures released by Unione Italiana Vini underscore the importance of the U.S. for Italy’s wine trade. The United States remains the leading destination outside the European Union for Italian wine, so quarterly changes there can have a strong effect on the overall export picture. The third-quarter increase was enough to lift extra-EU performance after a difficult first half, but not enough to restore growth for the full January-to-September period.
The data also show how uneven the recovery remains across measures. Volume to the U.S. rose 6.6% in the quarter, while value climbed nearly 17%, indicating that the total worth of shipments increased faster than the amount shipped. At the same time, the cumulative figures through September remained negative both for the U.S. market and for extra-EU destinations as a whole.
Unione Italiana Vini based its report on provisional European Union statistics processed by its observatory. Because the numbers are preliminary, they may be revised later. For now, they point to a stronger third quarter for Italian wine in overseas markets, led by the United States, but they also show that the industry is still trying to recover from earlier declines.
