In the international catalogue of vine varieties which is hosted in the institute for vine breeding at the Julius Kuehn Institut in Siebeldingen (Germany) are listed more than 18.000 vine varieties. This shows how variabel the species vitis realy is.
But only a very little number of varieties have an importance for more than two countries. The diffusion from most of these are very limited. We often call them autochthone varieties.
Only a very little number of varieties have a worldwide acceptation. Most of them are planted in the countries with short wine making tradition.
We want to give you an overview of the most important varieties.
The following table shows the most planted varieties in Germany:
variety | surface in ha | in percent |
Rheinriesling | 22.434 | 21,9% |
Mueller-Thurgau | 13.721 | 13,4% |
Pinot noir | 11.800 | 11,5% |
Dornfelder | 8.101 | 7,9% |
other red varieties | 6.410 | 6,3% |
Sylvaner | 5.236 | 5,1% |
PInot gris | 4.481 | 4,4% |
Portugieser | 4.354 | 4,3% |
Pinot blanc | 3.731 | 3,6% |
Kerner | 3.712 | 3,6% |
Blauer Trollinger | 2.472 | 2,4% |
Pinot meunier | 2.361 | 2,3% |
other white varieties | 2,0% | |
Bacchus | 2.015 | 2,0% |
Blauer Limberger | 1.729 | 1,7% |
Scheurebe | 1.672 | 1,6% |
Chardonnay | 1.171 | 1,1% |
Chasselas blanc | 1.136 | 1,1% |
Gewürztraminer | 835 | 0,8% |
Huxelrebe | 635 | 0,6% |
Ortega | 634 | 0,6% |
Faberrebe | 587 | 0,6% |
Weißer Elbling | 578 | 0,6% |
Mario-Muskat | 502 | 0,5% |
Gesamt: | 102.341 |
Quelle: Statistisches Bundesamt, Statistisches Jahrbuch 2009