A study of German consumers has revealed the sparkling wine brands that have the strongest brand resonance. At the top is Rotkäppchen, followed Freixenet and Fürst von Metternich.
In December 2020, Hamburg market research company Splendid Research asked 1,512 Germans between the ages of 18 and 69 about sparkling wine brands, including which names they recognised, what image they ascribed to them, and the likelihood of buying or re-buying them.
The German wine market is one of the thirstiest in the world when it comes to sparkling wine, with Germans spending €7.3bn ($9bn) on the category in 2019, according to the German Wine Institute.
Rotkäppchen has always been a wildly popular sparkling wine. The original company was founded in Freyburg, Germany in 1856, and over the years it has survived through turbulent times, from an 1894 lawsuit from Champagne, to the seizure of assets by the East German State. The company almost disappeared after German reunification, until some employees bought the company in 1993, with the help of outside investors. Today, Rotkäppchen is a German sparkling powerhouse. Splendid Research found that consumers particularly trust its price/quality ratio.
Some distance behind comes Freixenet, the cava company that was acquired by Germany’s Henkell – now the largest sparkling wine house in the world – in 2018.
In third place is Fürst von Metternich, also owned by Henkell-Freixenet. Another brand with a serious heritage, Fürst von Metternich originates from Schloss Johannisberg, also famous for the first Riesling vineyard in the world. The estate was given to Count Klemens Wenzel Lothar von Metternich, an Austrian statesman, and diplomat who became one of Europe’s leading powerbrokers after the fall of Napoleon I.
Splendid Research is a market research company based in Hamburg, Germany. This consumer research was done via the internet.
Felicity Carter
