Germany’s White Wine Market: What Can Argentina Gain?

A Large White Wine Market with Established Habits

White wine accounted for 47 percent of the German wine market in 2024. Red wine stood at 39 percent and rosé at 14 percent. Within the white wine segment, 55 percent of the wines purchased came from Germany. Grauburgunder and Weißburgunder in particular gained ground.¹

The market also carries considerable weight internationally. Germany imported around 12.9 million hectolitres of wine in 2025, making it the world’s largest wine importer by volume. With imports worth around EUR 2.6 billion, Germany ranked third by value behind the United States and the United Kingdom.²

Argentine white wine therefore enters a large market where domestic origin is strongly represented and internationally established grape varieties and origins compete for attention, listings and sales.

Argentina’s Export Picture Looks Different

Argentina exported around 1.93 million hectolitres of wine in 2025. Of that, 327,304 hectolitres were white wine, representing around 17 percent of total export volume.³

The year-on-year development is more interesting: while Argentina’s total wine exports fell by volume in 2025, white wine exports rose by 4.2 percent compared with 2024.³

Among exported white wines carrying a varietal designation, the business is heavily concentrated in four grapes. Chardonnay leads with 43.8 percent of volume, followed by Torrontés Riojano at 20.2 percent, Pinot Gris at 12.1 percent and Sauvignon Blanc at 12 percent. Together, these four account for 88 percent of the segment.³

So what reaches Germany is not one homogeneous category of “Argentine white wine”. The two leading grape varieties alone arrive with very different starting points.

Chardonnay Brings a Familiar Category

Chardonnay is Argentina’s most important exported white varietal wine. In 2025, the grape accounted for 43.8 percent of this export volume.³

In Germany, Chardonnay is already an established category. For an Argentine Chardonnay, the question therefore lies in the specific wine: What origin does it carry? What style does it show? What level of quality and price does it bring? Where does it add something to an existing portfolio?

The answer may lie in a precisely defined origin, a distinctive vineyard structure, a clear style, or in filling a specific price or portfolio segment for an importer.

The familiar grape name makes entry easier. The wine itself has to provide the reason for the listing.

Torrontés Brings an Argentine Story

Torrontés Riojano is the second most important white grape in Argentina’s exports of varietal wines, accounting for 20.2 percent.³

Its story starts from a different place. The INV describes Torrontés Riojano as Argentina’s emblematic white grape variety. Genetic research identifies it with a high degree of probability as a cross between Muscat of Alexandria and Criolla Chica, also known as Listán Prieto.⁵

That means the grape itself can become part of the origin story. With Chardonnay, the grape is internationally familiar and the specific Argentine wine has to provide its own reason to matter. With Torrontés Riojano, the grape itself can already contribute something distinctly Argentine to the story.

How familiar Torrontés actually is to German buyers or consumers cannot be established reliably from the available data. What is clear is that it starts from a very different position than Chardonnay.

What the Average Hides

A total of 13,692 hectolitres of Argentine white wine went to Germany in 2025. That represented 4.2 percent of Argentina’s white wine exports. The average FOB value was USD 1.04 per litre.³

That average combines very different export structures.

Germany received 3,337 hectolitres of white wine with a varietal designation at an average of USD 3.27 per litre. White wine without a varietal designation totalled 10,345 hectolitres, at an average FOB value of USD 0.31 per litre.³

The preliminary figures for the first half of 2026 make the spread even more visible.

Germany took 656.6 hectolitres of Argentine Chardonnay during those six months. The entire volume was packaged rather than shipped in bulk, and the average FOB price was USD 7.90 per litre. Torrontés Riojano totalled 212.9 hectolitres, also entirely packaged, at an average of USD 3.70 per litre.⁴

Chenin looked completely different. Of the 5,046.1 hectolitres sent to Germany, 5,040 hectolitres were shipped as bulk wine. The average FOB price was USD 0.33 per litre.⁴

By volume, 5,046 hectolitres of Chenin represent a substantially larger German business than 656.6 hectolitres of Chardonnay. Shipping format and FOB price reveal how different the two export flows actually are.

These figures should not be read as retail prices or judgements of quality. FOB measures export value, and the data distinguishes between packaged and bulk wine. What it shows is the kind of business sitting behind the export volume.

The Wine Sets the Starting Point

Chardonnay, Torrontés and Chenin show how differently the route into the same market can look. One moves within an internationally established category, another brings a specifically Argentine grape story, while the third currently represents above all a volume business.

For a winery, each of these starting points has different implications for price, partners, distribution and communication. That direction should be clear before the wine is offered in Germany.

Germany’s white wine market is large. What matters is the place a winery wants its wine to occupy within it.

1 German Wine Institute (DWI): Consumer Trends in the German Wine Market. Published 17 March 2025; underlying market data: 2024, NielsenIQ analysis commissioned by the DWI. White wine accounted for 47 percent of the market; 55 percent of white wines purchased came from German production. Grauburgunder and Weißburgunder recorded particularly strong gains.

2 International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV): State of the World Wine Sector in 2025. Published May 2026; data year: 2025. Germany imported 12.9 million hl of wine worth around EUR 2.6 billion, ranking first by import volume and third by import value.

3 Instituto Nacional de Vitivinicultura (INV): Variedades Blancas y Vinos Blancos – Informe Especial. Published 30 July 2026; export data predominantly for 2025. Used for the share of white wine in Argentina’s exports, year-on-year development, German export volumes and average values, and the shares of Chardonnay, Torrontés Riojano, Pinot Gris and Sauvignon Blanc.

4 Instituto Nacional de Vitivinicultura (INV): Exportaciones de vinos varietales – Primer semestre de 2026. Data for January to June 2026, explicitly preliminary. Used for Germany data on Chardonnay, Torrontés Riojano and Chenin, including shipping format and average FOB price. The INV published the associated analysis on 13 August 2026.

5 Instituto Nacional de Vitivinicultura (INV): Informe de variedad: Torrontés. The INV describes Torrontés Riojano as Argentina’s emblematic white grape variety and identifies its genetic origin with a high degree of probability as a cross between Muscat of Alexandria and Criolla Chica, also known as Listán Prieto.