The German Wine Institute (DWI) has released figures for wine sales German restaurants. These figures are based on a representative study conducted by Geisenheim University. According to the study, wineries sold an average of 11.2% of their volume to the gastronomy sector, generating a nearly identical 11.5% of their revenue. Of the total sales volume of 245m 75cl bottles or equivalent (with a value of €1.34bn), 26m (€148m) were sold in the on-trade “I was surprised that both sales volume and revenue were only between 11% and 12%,” says DWI spokesperson Ernst Büscher, adding: “But it's naturally a mixed calculation. Some businesses sell more than 20% in the sector. However, this data reflects 2023, a year in which the restaurants faced challenges due to staff shortages on the one hand and rising costs and prices on the other. Due to high prices, guests also cut back on wine consumption. After all, you can only spend your money once.”
One in four bottles contains a litre
The average revenue per litre, weighted by sales volume across all wine regions, amounted to €5.62 per 75cl bottle or €7.49 per litre. However, maximum revenues vary significantly between regions. In the lower price range - around €5 per litre - there are hardly any regional differences. In 2023, one in four bottles (26%) sold by wineries to the on-trade contained a litre bottle. The revenue for a litre bottle, at €4.12 per liter, is only half that of a 75cl bottle (€8.32 per litre, which results in the revenue to wineries being just 14%. The price differentiation between wine regions is much less pronounced for the 1-litre bottle compared to the 75cl.
2024: Decline in wine sales
After the pandemic, revenue and sales in the on-trade recovered strongly in 2022, rising by 41%. However, due to the economic crisis, revenue in 2023 increased by only 2.7%, while sales volume decreased by 5.6%. In the first half of 2024, wineries’ revenue fell by 6.9% and sales volume dropped further, by 9.7% almost throughout the country.
Wine Sales from Over 400 Wineries
For the study, more than 400 wineries that participated in the Geisenheim sales analysis provided anonymized sales data digitally through their ERP systems. The analysis, covering 2021 through June 2024, is based on 10.1m sales entries, totaling 133.8m liters of wine (valued at €926.9m). The participating wineries are located in the eight largest wine-growing regions: Rheinhessen, Pfalz, Baden, Württemberg, Mosel, Franken, Nahe, and Rheingau, which together account for 97% of Germany's vineyard area. Sufficient sales data was not available for the regions of Saale-Unstrut, Ahr, Saxony, Mittelrhein, and Hessische Bergstraße.
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