Wine market: Non-alcoholic is a long-term trend

Sweet wines are more popular on the German sparkling wine market. Especially for toasting, not as a meal companion. Non-alcoholic versions are particularly popular among young people.

WIf he likes wine, he can enjoy a glass of sparkling wine every now and then. However, the reverse is not necessarily true. Around 37 percent of Germans say they never have a glass of wine. But only 26 percent categorically refuse a glass of sparkling wine. A surprising finding of the representative survey that market researcher Gergely Szolnoki from Geisenheim University presented to winemakers on the occasion of the 67th Rheingau Wine Week. The result is probably explained by the aura that sparkling wine still has as a drink for special moments beyond everyday life.

Less surprising is the result of the two surveys from October 2022 and 2023, according to which around 50 percent of sparkling wine drinkers prefer the flavors “dry” and “semi-dry”. Both categories are misleading in that even dry sparkling wines have a high sugar content of at least 17 grams per liter. “Brut” sparkling wine with less than twelve grams of residual sugar, however, is only appreciated by 13 percent of sparkling wine drinkers. “Extra brut” and “brut nature” are therefore the concern of a fringe group of only five percent of sparkling wine buyers.