Italian sparkling wines: one billion bottles in 2022, worth 2.85 billion euros in production

It will still be record-breaking holidays for Italian sparkling wines. In spite of inflation and the worrying geopolitical situation, Italian sparkling wines are about to return as protagonists on tables around the world. According to the Uiv-Ismea Observatory, in its usual analysis of sparkling wine consumption for the holidays, 341 million bottles of Italian sparkling wine will be uncorked between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, both in Italy (95 million) and, above all, abroad, which is increasingly witnessing Italian sparkling fever with 3/4 of total sales. Overall, 2022 will close with a new production record very close to the ceiling of 1 billion bottles (970 million), for a countervalue of 2.85 billion euros, of which about 2 billion in exports alone. Driving the growth is demand in the key markets of the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany, but also established and emerging markets such as Canada, Sweden, Japan, Eastern Europe and France, which are increasingly attracted to Italian bubbles (+25% growth in volume in Champagne country).
According to the estimates of the Observatory of Unione Italiana Vini (Uiv) and Ismea, under the Christmas tree it is Prosecco (Doc, Conegliano Valdobbiadene Docg and Colli Asolani) that plays the lion’s share, on the strength of an incidence on production that has now reached 70% of the sparkling wines bottled in Italy and a propensity to export that makes it the most commercialized Italian agri-food product in the world, with a total estimated value for 2022 that exceeds 1.6 billion euros. But alongside the battleship Prosecco, the double-digit growth of TrentoDoc, the increasing numbers of Asti and the confirmation of Franciacorta, there are hundreds of productions (or micro-productions) that testify to the effervescence of the type all along Italy: from Oltrepò Pavese to Alta Langa, from Trebbiano to Verdicchio, from Moscati to Falanghine to Grechetti; from Malvasie to Grillo, from Nero d’Avola to Negroamaro to Durello, Vermentino and many others.
Denomination of origin productions in 83% of cases (at 6% Igt), which this year will mark a more moderate growth than in recent vintages, but which consolidate their driving role in favor of the entire sector in a certainly less brilliant period for still wines. For 2022 the estimated production growth is 6%, with an increase in export volumes of 8% and a minimal, but, nevertheless, positive change (+1%) in domestic demand. During the holidays, 101 million bottles will be uncorked in Italy, of which almost 6 million will be imported (+3% volume) and 95 million will be Italian bubbles (+1%). Better instead is the trend of consumption abroad (+8% volume), at 246 million bottles.