Viticulture is no longer profitable in many regions of Europe. Small family businesses in particular are feeling the effects. Many of them are desperately looking for successors. But is it still worth it?
The situation is serious, the mood is low. Even the greatest optimists have now realised that this is not a temporary consumer crisis, but that viticulture is undergoing a structural change. Too much wine, too little demand. The equation is simple. But what can be done? The proposals put forward by EU politicians to rebalance wine production can be counted on one hand: Grubbing up, crisis distillation, green harvesting, dealcoholisation. But will this solve the problems in the long term? Not likely.
Whilst associations are looking for marketing strategies to boost demand again, the great death of winegrowers is looming in the background. Particularly affected: Unknown businesses and winegrowers who do not have their own sales channels and only produce grapes or bulk wine. Thomas Schaurer is a winegrower and founder of the association "Zukunftsinitiative Deutscher Weinbau". He says clearly: "In a few months, 50 to 60 per cent of all winegrowing families in Germany are threatened with bankruptcy. What will happen if our vineyards disappear? Then we will not only lose a cultural asset that is thousands of years old—but also a piece of our homeland. What remains is overgrown, fallow land."
Grapes are no longer worth anything, frustrated winegrowers write on social media. For many, viticulture has long been more of an occupational therapy than an economic basis. But this cannot be the future for young people.
Fewer and fewer young people want to take over their parents' vineyards.
123rfIf you look at the average age of German winegrowers, we are currently at 55. Although the wine media often hypes "young winemakers" and "career changers", the figures speak a different language: there are too few newcomers.
Demographic change will bring drastic changes with it. It will affect viticulture more than ever before in the coming years. This is because when the baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) retire, many vineyards will be abandoned due to a lack of succession. This is already becoming apparent. According to the study "Der Weinbau im Wandel" published by the St. Gallen Business School in 2023, only 28 per cent of full-time winegrowers in Germany have a secure business successor. Among part-time winegrowers, only 18 per cent stated that they had secured a farm successor.
In fact, many farms that have been run by families for generations are now without a successor. Not only in Germany. Young people everywhere shy away from the hard physical labour in the vineyard, the long working days and the uncertain economic prospects.
In addition, many potential young winegrowers are faced with a dilemma: although investments in modern machinery, cellar technology or modern vineyard management are urgently needed, they are reluctant to do so in the face of uncertain market conditions and falling revenues. Numerous purchases have been postponed for years, but the high costs and the risk of a lack of profitability make it particularly difficult for the next generation to take the decisive step.
And between you and me: if my parents had a small family winery without a famous name, I would also ask myself whether that should be my future. But even renowned traditional wineries are in a bad position. Just a few weeks ago, the traditional VDP winery Dr Wagner in Saarburg (Saar) announced that it was closing down after five generations. "It was too big and too much for me," said 41-year-old owner Christine Wagner, who took over the business from her father Heinz a few years ago.
Abandoned steep slopes on the Moselle near Cochem.
Uwe KaussThe crisis is particularly evident in steep-slope regions such as the Moselle. The effort required here is immense, the work has to be done laboriously by hand. This drives up costs. While wines from steep vineyards can be of outstanding quality, they are rarely remunerated accordingly on the market.
More and more winegrowers are therefore abandoning these areas—with consequences not only for their livelihoods, but also for cultural landscapes of international standing. "The prices for vineyards—especially steep slopes—are currently very favourable because many older winegrowers are giving up," says wine estate broker Erhard Heitlinger. One look at the Moselle is enough to make you feel gloomy. Overgrown vineyards, entire slopes left to their own devices. Who wants to invest there?
According to the German Federal Ministry of Agriculture, 14,150 farms were still growing wine in Germany in 2023, around 25 per cent fewer than twelve years ago. Small farms in particular have been abandoned. While there were still around 6,050 farms with less than one hectare of vineyards in 2010, the agricultural structure survey only counted 3,160 in 2023. In contrast, the number of larger farms remained stable. The number of very large farms even increased. This shows that the winegrowing structure is developing towards fewer farms with larger vineyards—a Europe-wide trend.
Groups such as the Alsatian Les Grands Chais de France (GCF) are becoming larger and larger, taking over wineries—and closing them if they are not profitable, as in the case of the Mosel winery Langguth und Erben. It was not big enough to survive in the price wars with retailers—but also not small enough to occupy the market with lucrative niche products, according to the company's reasoning.
In Italy, the Veronesi family (Oniverse Group), which owns the clothing brand Calzedonia and the wine retail chain Signorvino, among others, is expanding its portfolio every year. They now own La Giuva in Valpolicella, Podere Guardia Grande in Sardinia, Tenimenti Leone in Lazio and Villa Bucci in Le Marche. As recently as July 2025, they bought the family winery Pico Maccario in Piedmont. If you have money, you go on a shopping spree. But often the money does not come from the wine business.
Experts predict that large areas of vineyards will disappear in the coming years. According to the German Winegrowers' Association (DWV), 30,000 hectares are "on the brink" in Germany, almost a third of German vineyards. Entire regions are threatened with landscape impoverishment, valuable cultivated landscapes could fall into disuse on a large scale. The loss would not only affect viticulture, but also tourism, the landscape, and the cultural identity of many regions.
The situation is unlikely to ease for several years. “This year's harvest is small but good—yet the trade is not feeling the effects. Prices will rise in four to five years at the earliest, when the area under vine has declined significantly. Those who fail to act now will lose market opportunities permanently,” warns Alexander Rittlinger, managing director of Reh Kendermann and spokesperson for the Federal Association of German Wineries.
The situation in France is similarly dramatic. More and more winery owners are reaching retirement age—without a successor: 56 per cent of French winegrowers are over 55 years old, while only 12 per cent are under 40. The number of winery insolvencies rose by 55 per cent in 2024, particularly in the south-west of the country. Industry insiders estimate that a total of around 100,000 hectares of vineyards would have to be uprooted in order to rebalance supply and demand. This is despite the fact that the French vineyard area has fallen by around half since the 1960s.
Italy, the largest wine producer in the world, is currently still resisting large-scale grubbing up. But here, too, the problem will resolve itself in many regions for demographic reasons. Especially where wine cooperatives dominate the wine industry. Vittorio Festa is a consultant and oenologist in Abruzzo: "Many vineyards are being abandoned because young people have an office or factory job and don't want to look after their parents' vines on the side, which hardly yield anything anyway. The grape prices often don't even cover the cultivation."
European viticulture is at a turning point: its competitiveness increasingly depends on whether it succeeds in attracting young people to the industry. Subsidies can at best be a transitional aid—they are no substitute for a sustainable business model. Many young winegrowers are faced with the choice of investing in modern technology, new sales channels and climate-friendly cultivation—or giving up their parents' winery.