“Cantina Italia”, wine stocks down, but still high, in April 2024

Waiting for a wine market snapshot that sounds like a real recovery in sales and consumption, which still doesn't seem to fully materialize, Italian wineries are starting to think about making room for the 2024 vintage, which will come into full swing in 3-4 months. And in the meantime, while it is true that stocks are falling, there is still more than one plentiful year in the cellar: 49.9 million hectoliters of wine, to be exact, as of April 30, 2024, -11.8% over the same date 2023, to which must be added 4.1 million hectoliters of musts (-27.9%) and 64,000 hectoliters of new wine still in fermentation (-9.6%). This is according to the latest edition of Icqrf’s “Cantina Italia”, based on the computerized wine registers (22,666 those registered), a database that, it is estimated, contains at least 95% of the wine and must held in Italy.
As has been the case for some time, most of the wine (59.2%) is held in northern regions, Veneto in the lead (13 million hectoliters, ahead of Emilia Romagna, Puglia and Tuscany, all between 5.3 and 5.5 million hectoliters, and Piedmont with 4.2 million hectoliters). Of the wine held, 55.6% is PDO, 25.7% is PGI, while varietal wines make up just 1.3% of the total, with 17.4% being other wines. There also remains, of course, the concentration of PDO and PGI wines, with 20 appellations out of 529 worth 58.3% of the total stock, Prosecco Doc leading the way with over 5 million hectoliters, 12% of the total.