Declining wine consumption in Germany

This was announced by the German Wine Institute (DWI) on the basis of the current wine consumption balance sheet, which relates to the two-month period from 1 August 2022 to 31 July 2023. According to this, wine consumption in relation to the total population has fallen from 19.9 to 19.2 litres per person compared to the same period last year. If only those over the age of 16, who are legally allowed to drink wine, are included in the statistics, wine consumption per person declined by a whole litre from 23.6 to 22.6 litres per year.

Consumption of sparkling wine constant

In the same period, per capita consumption of sparkling wine remained constant at 3.2 litres in relation to the total population. In the over-16 age group, the volume remained unchanged at 3.8 litres per year.

In addition to wine purchases from retailers and producers, the wine consumption balance also shows the quantities of wine drunk outside the home. According to DWI Managing Director Monika Reule, the current decline reflects both changing consumer behaviour and demographic change in Germany.

The calculation is based on the 16.2 million hectolitres of wine and 2.7 million hectolitres of sparkling wine consumed in Germany in the last wine year. Converted to the total German population of 84.4 million inhabitants, this results in a combined per capita consumption of 22.3 litres of wine and sparkling wine. Based on the population aged 16 and over, the theoretical consumption of wine and sparkling wine per person per year is 26.3 litres.