The Germans are considered the sparkling wine world champions. And the corks pop almost as often. However, non-alcoholic sparkling wine is often served.
Despite falling purchasing power and subdued consumer sentiment, sparkling wine from Germany remains in almost constant demand in this country – although more often without alcohol.
According to the association's own surveys, German sparkling wine producers sold around 245 million 0.75 liter bottles in their own country in 2023. This corresponds to a decrease of around 1.5 percent or around 3.5 million bottles compared to the previous year, as the Association of German Sparkling Wine Cellars announced on Wednesday. “In contrast, the demand for so-called non-alcoholic sparkling wines continues to increase.”
Sparkling wine proves to be “crisis-resistant”
In 2023, Germans bought around 18 million bottles of “sparkling drinks made from dealcoholized wine”. That was around 1.5 million bottles more than the year before. According to the association, alcohol-free sparkling variants achieved a market share of 7.4 percent for the first time and sales growth of 9.7 percent compared to 2022.
“We assume that some non-alcoholic sparkling wine alternatives have found their way to customers instead of a classic sparkling wine in order to make it possible to toast with a sparkling drink even if individuals want to avoid alcohol due to the situation,” said the managing director of the Association of German Sparkling Wine Producers, Alexander Tacer. “In view of the various economic challenges, the sparkling wine market proved to be extremely crisis-resistant overall last year.”
