A hidden sparkle: The Spanish bulk wines powering Germany’s bubbly market

It looks like a success story on paper. Since the 1980s, Germany's imports of Spanish wine have increased more than tenfold, rising from 40 million litres in 1988 to 422 million litres in 2024.

Yet the picture is far less rosy than these figures imply. Last year, 74% of Spanish wine imported into Germany was traded in bulk at an average price of €0.48 per litre. 

The main supplier is Castilla-La Mancha. According to Spain’s OIVE, wine exports from this region increased sixfold, from 51 million litres in 2000 to 308 million litres in 2023. Of these, 219 million litres were white wine in bulk, much of it made from Airén grapes. This ubiquitous variety is not only the major source of base wine for the German sparkling wine industry; it also fuels, to a smaller extent, the country’s mulled white wine production, a popular drink at Christmas markets throughout the festive season. Given that domestic Riesling production is around 180 million litres a year, Germans are therefore likely to drink more Airén than their flagship white variety.

Spanish bulk wine is also bottled as still wine and sold in supermarkets, mostly as “Vino de España” or “Vino de la Tierra de Castilla”. Leading brands in this category include Freixenet’s Mederaño and Mia, bottled by Freixenet Vinos GmbH in Wiesbaden, selling well over 10 and four million bottles a year, respectively. Mederaño, Mia, and other Spanish still wines, bottled by German companies such as Peter Mertes and Rheinberg Kellerei, typically retail between €1.99 and €4.99. They are often semi-dry, tailored to the taste of the average German consumer.

A source of inexpensive bubbly

Apart from still wines, the rather neutral-tasting Airén variety has proven to be an ideal source for German sparkling wine producers. "Until the 1980s, Italy was the main supplier of base wine to the German sparkling wine industry. This gradually shifted towards Spain," says Klaus Herrmann, founder of Germany’s leading wine business magazine, Wein+Markt. 

Herrmann, who has observed the German wine market for 40 years, highlights three major mass-market sparkling wine producers: Henkell, Rotkäppchen Mumm and Schloss Wachenheim. Their inexpensive sparkling wines, sold under multiple brands, bear “Hergestellt in Deutschland” (Made in Germany) on the label. Even when the wine has been produced from Spanish base wine, Spain is not mentioned anywhere on the label. As a result, few German consumers realise that many “Made in Germany” sparkling wines are actually Spanish in origin. This lack of visibility represents a missed opportunity for the Spanish wine industry to promote its identity in one of the world’s most important sparkling wine markets. "Germans are the world's biggest sparkling wine consumers, and Spain has supplied them with base wines for three decades," Herrmann explains. "Spain became the main supplier thanks to its lower prices and the significant improvement in quality since the 1990s."

Freixenet —majority-owned by Germany’s Henkell Group since 2018 is also the country’s best-selling Spanish sparkling wine brand. After grape and base wine shortages caused by the 2021-23 drought in Catalonia, the company began producing part of its sparkling wine using grapes from central Spain. In August 2024, it launched Freixenet Premium Sparkling Wine - Cuvée de España in Germany, Austria and Switzerland as part of its Carta Nevada range. Since the wine uses grapes from outside the Cava region —notably Macabeo and Chardonnay— and undergoes tank fermentation, it no longer qualifies as Cava. As a result, exports of DO Cava to Germany fell by 64% (see chart below), plunging from 31.1 million bottles in 2023 to 11.2 million in 2024, a stark remainder of DO Cava’s dependence on a handful of large producers.

Significant parts of Freixenet’s Carta Nevada range for the German market are no longer bottled in Catalonia, but in Germany itself. The back label now reads “Product of Germany”. Consequently, these sparkling wines are excluded from Spanish sparkling wine import statistics, contributing to a 39% drop in the category in 2024.

Are bottled still wines doing better?

Despite being the world's third-largest economy and one of the top 20 by GDP per capita, Germany remains a price-sensitive wine market. Food retailers such as Aldi, Lidl and Edeka account for about two-thirds of wine sales by volume, with an average bottle price just above €3. A large share of Spain's bottled wine sold in Germany is made of varietals, with Tempranillo being the most commonly featured grape on the label. 

In 2024, DOP still wines accounted for only 7% of Spanish wine exports to Germany, with DOCa Rioja representing 37% of that volume. According to Nielsen IQ, the best-selling Spanish DO brands include Marqués de Cáceres (Rioja), Viña Albali (Valdepeñas), and Familia Torres, with wines like Viña Sol and Sangre de Toro from DO Catalunya. The average price of Spain’s DOP still wine exports to Germany is €3.57 per litre, a striking contrast to Switzerland’s €10.71.

The vast volumes of inexpensive Spanish wine entering Germany create little added value for most of Spain’s producers. However, there is also a more promising segment: mid-range and premium Spanish wines which show potential in both the on- and off-trade. Those wines showcase Spain’s diversity of regions, grape varieties, climates, soils and styles. We will publish a second article shortly focusing on this segment of the market.