Good news from the UK: for the first time, Italian wines outnumber French wines

The UK market has always been the trendsetter in many sectors, including wine, and now there is some good news for Italian wines. According to the analysis carried out by the Wine Business Solution, for the first time ever, there are more Italian wines than French ones on the wine lists in restaurants and wine bars in the United Kingdom (which is, by the way, the third market in value and volume for Italian wines, ed.).
Italy’s growth is the result of a combined effect, as its wines weigh 26% on the lists of English restaurants and wine bars (+2% compared to 2018) while French wines fell to 24% (29% less on 2018). The merit goes in part to the more advantageous ratio between quality and price of Italian wines, but also to a real and growing curiosity, the study explained, for the many different wines made from the many native or ancient Italian grape varieties, and the many territories where they are cultivated.
In third position, in England, following Italy and France, there is Spain (13%) that also belongs to the Old World wine producing countries, and which together are worth more than 60% of the market. Then, in order, Chile, Australia, Argentina, South Africa, USA and Portugal, all substantially stable in their positions compared to 2018. According to the analysis of the Australian portal “Wine Title”, however, the sale price of Italian wines is still below average, and further that, in general, prices of the proposed wines are decreasing. On average, a bottle of wine in a restaurant in the UK today, costs 34.95 pounds Sterling (-11% on 2018), while the price of a bottle of Italian wine is 31.7 pounds (+ 2%). At the top, for prices, despite the 12% drop compared to 2018, France leads, at 48.5 pounds per bottle, ahead of the US, which follow the same trend, at 40.4 pounds. Just behind the Italians, the New Zealand wines, at 31.6 pounds per bottle (-4%), followed by those made in Argentina, at 29.7 pounds (+ 7%). Spain is stable, at 28.3 pounds per bottle, while Australia has fallen 13%, and is at 27.9 pounds per bottle, ahead of South Africa (24.9 pounds, -10%) and Chile ( 21.88 pounds, -4%).