Austria

A wine market with a strong domestic centre

Austria produced around 2.56m hl of wine in 2025 – 37% more than in the weak 2024 vintage and 11% more than the average of the previous five years. At the same time, per-capita consumption in 2024/25 was 25.5 litres. Wine is therefore firmly anchored in the Austrian market on both the supply and demand side.

In grocery retail, a total of 71.7m litres of wine were sold in 2024, 3.5% less than the previous year. Revenue fell by 2.2% to €387.4m. Foreign wines lost more strongly: their sales volume declined by 6.0%, while Austrian wine lost 2.3%.

Market size alone therefore describes Austria only inadequately. What matters is how much room actually exists within a market strongly shaped by domestic origin for an additional imported wine.

How does an imported wine create relevance in a market whose own origin is already so strongly occupied?

Imported wine is established. The most important origins are in Europe.

Austria imported around 80.4m litres of wine in 2024, worth €295.5m. Italy dominated with 48.1m litres, well ahead of Germany with 13.0m litres. By import value, Italy with €141.8m and France with €84.0m were far ahead of the other countries of origin.

The five most important supplier countries by import value were Italy, France, Germany, Spain and Hungary. Only after them came origins outside Europe, with the USA, South Africa and Australia. Argentina was not among Austria’s ten largest supplier countries in 2024.

The import structure shows different roles: Italy combines large volume with an average import value of €2.95/l. France reached an import value of €84.0m with only 4.7m litres, or €17.86/l. The Austrian import market therefore consists of very different price, origin and portfolio positions.

For Argentina, the relevant comparison set lies among the established import origins and their respective roles in the portfolio.

An imported wine needs a recognizable function in the portfolio

Austrian wine already accounts for the majority of sales and revenue in domestic retail. At the same time, import data show that foreign wines occupy very different positions – from volume-strong Italian offerings to significantly higher-valued French imports.

For an Argentine portfolio, simply transferring the existing export range is therefore not enough. Grape variety, style, origin, price and the role of each wine in the respective channel have to fit together. With Argentina’s current presence still small, the market structure points to a focused portfolio with clearly distinguishable functions rather than breadth without a recognizable position.

The right channel determines the wine’s context

The strong importance of domestic wines shapes trade and gastronomy alike. In grocery retail, Austrian wines reached a 68.7% volume share and 77.0% revenue share in 2024. For gastronomy wholesale, the most recently published complete market share basis for 2023 even shows 89.8% of volume and 83.1% of value for Austrian wines.

For imported wines, the choice of distribution channel therefore becomes especially relevant. Specialist retail, gastronomy or a specialized import portfolio each place different demands on price, portfolio, origin explanation and communication. The question of the right partner is therefore part of the wine’s positioning in the Austrian market.

Market entry begins with the environment in which the wine’s origin gains concrete value.