Italian wine sales in mass retail suffer in volume but not in value. Sparkling wines are on the rise

Italian wine is suffering in terms of volume but not in value within Italy’s large-scale retail sector, with sparkling wines continuing to stand out: Prosecco and Metodo Classico are growing in both volume and value, while the “private label” segment is slowing sharply after a long period of growth. These are some of the highlights that emerge from Circana data updated as of July 2026, analyzed by WineNews.
According to these figures, in the 12 months between July 2025 and July 2026, a total of 414 million liters of wine were sold (-3.4% from the previous year) for 1.8 billion euros (-1.2%). Meanwhile, sparkling wines recorded growth of +1% in volume (81.9 million liters) and +1.2% in value (628 million euros), thanks to Prosecco, which accounts for half of the sparkling wine market (40 million liters, +3.8%, and 306.6 million euros, +1.7%), but, above all, to the Italian Metodo Classico (Franciacorta, Trentodoc, and so on), which grew by 7.6% in volume (7.8 million liters) and 6.2% in value (145.2 million euros).
Specifically, looking at bottle sizes, while the classic 0.75-liter bottle has held its ground overall (total sales of 1.5 billion euros, down 0.7%, for 240 million liters, down 2.1%), sales of the classic large bottles (both up to 2 liters and larger) have plummeted, falling by -10.6% in volume and between -9.2% and -6.2% in value, while bag-in-box sales are showing positive growth (totaling 21.3 million liters, up 1.3%, for 50 million euros, up 4.7%). The smaller sizes of the classic 0.75-liter bottle. However, they represent a small minority (growth of 4.7% in volume and 5.3% in value, to 4.5 million euros for 561,572 liters for the size smaller than half a bottle, while those ranging from 37.5 to 75 centiliters saw a 2.3% increase in volume, to 854,504 liters, and a 3% increase in value, to 8.7 million euros).
As mentioned, among the trends worth noting is the reversal in the trend for private-label wines, which, after a significant growth phase in the recent past, have recorded a -5.4% decline in volume (61.4 million liters) and a -5% decline in value (173.7 million euros) over the past 12 months. This is a sign that, at a time when “less, but better” is the order of the day, the producer’s brand is once again becoming an even more important factor in consumer choice than usual.