German Wine Purchases Hit Six-Year Low as Only 32.4% of Households Buy in 2025

Recent data from NielsenIQ, published in the fourth market research newsletter of 2025 by the German Wine Institute, show a continued decline in wine purchases among German households. In the third quarter of 2025, only 32.4 percent of households bought wine, marking the lowest level in six years. This represents a decrease of 0.9 percentage points compared to the same period last year. The downward trend has persisted for several years. During the pandemic year of 2020, household wine purchase rates were at 39.6 percent.

The decline is especially pronounced for German wines. Their buyer reach dropped again, and the overall market saw double-digit declines in both volume and spending compared to the previous year’s quarter. The data do not include out-of-home consumption, focusing only on retail purchases.

While demand for foreign wines remained relatively stable, German wines experienced a clear drop across all measured parameters. The shift in consumer preferences was also evident in wine color choices. After several quarters of growth for white wine, red wine saw an increase of 4.3 percent in the third quarter of 2025, while white wine lost 1.2 percent and rosé remained nearly unchanged with a slight increase of 1 percent. These changes were observed across all sales channels and reflect a general caution among consumers.

Market share changes were also noted among countries of origin. German wines lost further ground, with volume share down by 3 percent and value share down by 4.6 percent. The buyer reach for German wines fell to 21.5 percent from 23.1 percent in 2024, a decrease of 1.6 percentage points.

Foreign wines saw modest gains, with purchased volume up by 1.9 percent and spending up by 2.8 percent. However, this growth did not extend to French and Spanish wines; only Italian wines and those categorized as “other origins” managed to increase both their sales volume and revenue share.

The data suggest that German consumers are buying less wine overall and are shifting their preferences toward imported varieties and red wines after a period dominated by white wine growth. The ongoing decline in domestic wine purchases highlights challenges for local producers as they face changing consumer habits and increased competition from abroad.