schiller-wine

Monday, March 20, 2023

The Wine Market in Germany in 2022: German Consumers Think Economically When Buying Wine (German Wine Institute)

Pictures: Vineyard Tour and Tasting with Hans Rebholz, Weingut Ökonomierat Rebholz (VDP), Pfalz - Germany-South and Alsace 2022 by ombiasy WineTours

Press Release German Wine Institute: The currently challenging economic conditions are also affecting the German wine market.

As reported by the German Wine Institute (DWI) on the basis of a wine market analysis, which was carried out by NielsenIQ on behalf of the DWI, ten percent less wine was bought in Germany last year, which led to a 6.5 percent drop in sales.

“Due to the loss of purchasing power caused by the rise in the cost of living, household purchases have focused strongly on essential products. As a result, fewer households bought wine and paid more attention to the price,” explains DWI Managing Director Monika Reule on the development of the wine market in 2022.

Pictures: Tasting and Weingut Dr. Heger and Christian Schiller and Joachim Heger. See: Cellar Tour and Tasting at Weingut Dr. Heger in Ihringen, Kaiserstuhl, Baden – Germany-South Tour by ombiasy WineTours (2015)

Less market share at higher prices

Above all, the cheaper wines from abroad have benefited from the greater price sensitivity of consumers. With an average price of €3.64/l for international wines, their purchase volumes fell by seven percent and spending by five percent, while domestic suppliers had to accept a drop in volume of 14 percent and a drop in sales of 8 percent at an average price of €4.18/l .

As a result, the market share of German wines in the wine purchasing volume fell by one percentage point to 44 percent. In terms of foreign origins, Italian wines show the highest volume market share with 16 percent (-1 percentage point), followed by wines from Spain with 14 percent (+2 percentage points) and French wines with unchanged eleven percent.

Domestic wines accounted for an unchanged 47 percent share of wine spending, reflecting the higher average price.

Pictures: Winemaker Dinner with Sebastian Fürst, Weingut Fürst, Franken, at Schaumahl, Offenbach/ Frankfurt, 16 Points Gault Millau, Germany

Organic wine has loyal customers

Organic wines were exempt from the decline in consumption last year. They were able to maintain their market shares of three percent in wine sales and four percent in sales compared to the previous year.

Pictures: Ernst Loosen and Annette and Christian Schiller in Washington DC. See: The Dry and Ultra-premium Dry GG and GG Reserve Rieslings of Weingut Dr. Loosen – Ernie Loosen in Washington DC

Rosé wines increasingly popular

Contrary to the general wine purchasing trend, sales of rosé wines developed positively in 2022. They improved their share of the wine purchasing volume by one percentage point to 13 percent. This growth came at the expense of red wine consumption, whose market share fell from 41 to 40 percent. White wines remained unchanged with a volume market share of 47 percent.

Pictures: Tasting with Helmut Dönnhoff and Sascha Johannes Schömel at Weingut Dönnhoff (VDP) in Oberhausen, Nahe - Germany-South and Alsace 2022 by ombiasy WineTours

Online wine trade is growing

After the growth in online wine purchases, especially during the pandemic-related lockdown, the market share of online wines increased again by two percentage points to 13 percent in 2022. The food retail trade (LEH), on the other hand, has lost two percentage points among wine shops, but remains by far the most important source of wine for consumers. 64 percent of all wines were bought in food retail in 2022. The discounters have an unchanged market share of 37 percent. Direct sales from producers are still important for German wines. Twenty-two percent of them were purchased in local businesses or in their online shops.

Pictures: Cellar Tour and Tasting at Weingut Robert Weil in Kiedrich, Rheingau, with Jan Christensen - Germany-North Tour 2019 by ombiasy WineTours: Quintessential Riesling

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Friday, March 17, 2023

The New German Wine Law of 2021 - Tasting at the German Wine Society (Washington DC Chapter), presented by Annette Schiller

Annette Schiller led a wine tasting at the German Wine Society (Washington DC Chapter) explainging the new German Wine Law of 2021.

In a nutshell, the new law moves the German wine classification from the sweetness to the terroir principle.

Invitation: The New 2021 Wine Law in Germany - Tasting Our Way Through the Classification System

Please plan to join the German Wine Society on Saturday, March 11, 2023 at 7:00 pm for a presentation on the new German wine law and classification system, and tasting of wines to illustrate the new system, by our own Annette Schiller, who has brought some of these wines back from Germany just for us. This is our first in-person event of 2023, and just the way to bring our knowledge of German wines up to date for all the events to come. Registrations for this event are due by Tuesday, March 7, 2023, and the price is $50 for GWS members, $57 for non-members. Please be aware that, due to limited supply of some of the wines, we have a maximum cap of 40 for attendance at this event. Reserve early to avoid disappointment!

Did you ever complain about the difficulty in understanding the label of a bottle of German wine?

Those days are finally over, since on November 26, 2020, the German parliament passed a new German wine law, which took effect January 27, 2021. The most important point of the new wine law is that a new hierarchy to determine the quality of the wine was introduced. The emphasis shifted from the sugar level of grapes at point of harvest as quality measure to the wine’s geographic origin and how narrowly it is defined. The bottom line is: the narrower the origin, the higher the quality. This concept follows the “terroir” principle, well-known from the classification in Burgundy and elsewhere. We will explore the quality levels by tasting several wines moving up in the quality pyramid as well as tasting the same wine within the same quality levels in the dry and sweet versions.

The list of wines for this event, presented below organized by categories in the new wine law, includes wines of various quality levels up to and including GG as well as sweeter Pradikat wines.

A tasty buffet of cheeses, bread, crackers, charcuterie, grapes and veggies will be provided to accompany the wines.

We look forward to seeing all of you on Saturday evening! Come prepared to take notes and improve your knowledge of German wines in a most pleasant way. There may be a mystery wine at the end giving you the chance to test what you have learned.

Carl Willner

President and Secretary

German Wine Society Capital Chapter

202-674-9044

The Tasting

Carl Willner, President: On March 11, 2023, the German Wine Society Capital Chapter met for its first in-person event of 2023, Annette Schiller’s presentation on the New German Wine Law of 2021.

This presentation was accompanied by 15 German wines, many of which Christian and Annette brought back from Germany for the event.

We held the event at the clubroom of Klaus Teuter’s apartment building in Van Ness, which proved just large enough for the strong turnout we got for this event. We had 42 people attending, including 23 members and 19 non-members, an unusually high turnout of non-members likely attributable to Annette notifying her list of contacts about the event. Many of the non-members were attending a GWS event for the first time. Indeed, turnout was so large that we reached the capacity limit for the event before the registration deadline and had to cut off registration early.

Annette’s presentation on the New German Wine Law was very thorough and knowledgeable, and greatly aided by the choices of wine to illustrate her points, including how a dry GG or EG wine and a sweet pradikat-level (Kabinett, Spatlese, Auslese) wine can be produced from the same vineyard. It was a challenge to keep the wines in sync with the presentation, though, with only 2 pourers having to get each wine to 21 people each, but it appeared that all the wines were served to all guests, and there were a number of good questions from the audience about them.

After tasting the 14 wines on Annette’s list, which were representative of almost all of the categories in the Wine Law of 2021 (we lacked only a Landwein), we tried a mystery wine to test our knowledge. This wine was revealed as a 2021 Haltenheimer Riesling Kabinett from the Rheingau, an Erste Lage with 10.5% alcohol produced by Balthasar Ress. It appeared that about half the room correctly guessed Rheingau as the region, with most others going for the Mosel, but fewer realized that it was a Kabinett, many guessing it was a trocken including very experienced tasters such as Ken Kelly at my table.

List of Wines

I. Deutscher Wein – Germany – No Further Indication of Provenance

Pink Riesling, Dr. Heidemanns-Bergweiler

II. Landwein - Protected Designation of Geographical Origin

III. Protected Specific Origin:

Anbaugebiet - Winegrowing Area

2021 Riesling, Trocken, Weingut Schreiber, Rheingau

2020 Riesling, Dry, Weingut Dr. Loosen, Mosel, VDP

2020 Riesling, Kabinett, Weingut Dr. Loosen, Mosel, VDP

2020 Huxelrebe, Spätlese, Weingut Geil, Rheinhessen

Region - Region

2020 Niersteiner Gutes Domtal, Weingut Adolph Müller, Spätlese

Ortswein – Village wine

2021 Hochheimer Riesling, Trocken, Weingut Schreiber, Rheingau

2020 Kiedricher Riesling, Trocken, Weingut Robert Weil, Rheingau, VDP

2021 Hochheimer Riesling, Kabinett, Weingut Schreiber, Rheingau

Lagenwein – Single Vineyard wine

Erste Lage – Premier Cru (if dry: Erstes Gewächs)

2017 Kiedrich Turmberg, Riesling, Trocken, Weingut Robert Weil, Rheingau, VDP

Große Lage – Grand Cru (if dry: Grosses Gewächs)

2021 Hochheimer Reichestal, Riesling Trocken, Weingut Schreiber, Rheingau

2020 Erdener Treppchen, Riesling Trocken, GG, Weingut Dr. Loosen, Mosel, VDP

2021 Hochheimer Reichestal, Riesling Spätlese, Weingut Schreiber, Rheingau

2020 Erdener Treppchen, Riesling, Auslese, Weingut Dr. Loosen, Mosel, VDP

Surprise Wine

Power Point Presentation