Asolo Prosecco DOCG, 18.7 million certified bottles (+ 10%) during the challenging 2020 pandemic

This is the time to take stock of the year. Asolo Prosecco DOCG has closed this tough year, 2020, at 18.7 million certified bottles, which is a 10% increase compared to 2019, when they counted 17 million certified bottles. Even though the health pandemic has dictated the economic situation, sales have been constantly above the previous year’s levels, throughout 2020. In October and November, there was an even further surge, and they counted 2.5 million certified bottles sold in each of the two months, confirming the acceleration in December, which marked +34% growth compared to 2019. These results have enabled Asolo Prosecco to rise to position number 20 among the Italian Designations of Origin, from the number 31 position it held in 2018. There is more. It is also 7th in specializing in the cultivation of white grapes and 4th in sparkling wine.
“Notwithstanding the severe changes that the pandemic has produced on society as well as on consumer habits”, commented Ugo Zamperoni, president of the Asolo Prosecco Consortium, “2020 was yet another year of significant growth for our Denomination. The data of the last quarter of the year have reinforced the perception that the dynamics of the demand for Asolo Prosecco are still growing, which, therefore, confirms the validity of the choices we adopted for the 2020 harvest. We were actually among the few Italian protection consortia not to reduce yields, and we even considered it appropriate to ask the Veneto Region for authorization to adopt the harvest reserve. This was an expansive choice that will allow us to accommodate any additional requests, should the market continue to demand ever-increasing volumes during 2021. Essentially, last spring we had chosen to free up the storage of the 2019 harvest in order not to create critical issues in the product offer. This, also truly proved to be a correct choice. Therefore, the stock data are telling us that the wine produced in 2019 is practically sold out, to the point that during the last few months of 2020, it was necessary to use new wine”.
Asolo Prosecco grew mainly because of the mass retail market channel, in Italy and abroad as well. The pandemic health crisis, however, has heavily penalized the small and medium-sized companies whose main outlet was the catering channel, and they encountered some critical issues. “The is the precise reason why”, explained Zamperoni, “the promotional activities we have in the pipeline in major national cities will aim to interest an increasingly broad range of users of Asolo Prosecco, who are also sensitive to a sparkling wine production characterized by strong identity values, such as ours. The fact that in 2020 the values of grapes and wholesale wine remained constant, if not with some hint of an increase, is also very comforting to us. This allows us to maintain proportionate balances within a supply chain that is heavily committed to guaranteeing continuous quality growth. And, the evidence is the positions of absolutely top importance that many Asolo Prosecco producers conquered in 2020, in almost all the major international wine competitions”.