The latest findings show that, over the past year, 68% of German households bought wine, a rise of 1% over the previous year. Of these households, eight out of ten bought their drink from food retailers. By type, red wine is known to have grown substantially in popularity. Retail sales grew in excess of 5% over the year, buoying up much of the retail wine sector. The data shows that, whilst wine sales were up 2% last year, other drinks categories lost sales. Sekt and champagne sales, for example, slumped across the year. Rosé wine sales actually recorded a drop of 9 % over the last 2 months of 2000, although the category fared less badly annually with a sales decrease of 1%.

Looking at retail outlet performance, the new data reveals that German discount stores were able to reap much of the benefit of the increased consumer demand. Overall they achieved double figure growth in red wine sales alone for 2000. By contrast, the large hypermarkets did less well in wine sales of all colours. At the same time, German wine-growers and producers increased their direct wine sales to consumers. The research now estimates that a total of 40 % of all German wine sales are made direct from the producers. However, direct sales of imported wines are still dramatically less significant.

German wine producers are reported as having yet another reason to be happy. German wines now hold some 40 % of their own home market. This means that their market share in 2000 was as high as that of French, Italian and New World wines put together. French wines recorded just 1 % growth over the year whilst Italian wines showed a rise of 6%. The biggest annual increase was recorded by the full-bodied reds from Australia, sales of which almost doubled from their current small base.