From niche to driving force: super premium Italian still wines are worth 18% of category exports

World trade in still wines is marking time, with volume declines in the last year of around 5% (rising to 7% in the Italian market. ed.), but the premium trend in consumption is increasing, starting precisely with Italian reds. According to the analysis of the Unione Italiana Vini (Uiv) Observatory on market trends over the past 12 years, made-in-Italy wine has in fact seen a fourfold increase in volume sales of still wines in the super-premium range (over 9 euros per bottle ex-cellar) over the period, with an average annual growth of 13%. The picture is even more significant when looking at value: from a niche, accounting for 6% of total exports in 2010, to an increasingly decisive asset in 2022, with the market share of super-premium wines coming to be worth 18%, or 863 million euros. At the expense, in particular, is the entry-level segment, which over the same period marks a decline in share from 19% to 6%.

According to the Unione Italiana Vini (Uiv) analysis, for the first time, exports of premium and super-premium still products (from 6 euros and up) surpassed those in the entry-level and popular range in 2022: in fact, the former occupy 52% market share (2.5 billion euros), compared to 48% (2.3 billion euros) for lower-value products. A long race toward premiumization started quietly and then recorded double-digit incremental averages year after year, with the surge in the post-Covid period. Different, according to the Uiv Observatory, is the discourse on sparkling wines, where the dominance of Prosecco in the popular segment-a school case on a global scale that has rewritten the rules of the approach to extra-dinner consumption, especially among young people-has left little room for the premium segments.

“We are witnessing”, commented the president of Unione Italiana Vini (UIV), Lamberto Frescobaldi, “a positive evolution in the positioning of our product, in line with what is happening with other sectors of made in Italy. Luxury Italy wins in the world”, he added, “for example, with the Italian fashion system, Ferrari, design, agribusiness. And, last but not least, the world of wine has refined its international appeal even beyond traditionally known territories, because today it is Italian-ness, more than tradition, that wins in the markets”.