Italians and wine in quarantine: double-digit increase in purchases for home consumption

The forced quarantine of Italians, restaurants and coffee bars closed, also change the wine consumption of Italians. They grow up among the domestic walls, between the desire, perhaps, to enjoy a little pleasure even in difficult times, but always with moderation and attention to health. And if still wines grow significantly, also as a result of the recovery of a meal that many Italians used to eat out for work, such as lunch, on the other hand, sparkling wines, with the loss of moments of socializing, toasts and aperitifs, are the ones that seem to suffer the most today. It emerges from an analysis of WineNews, based on data from Iri, which monitored wine sales in organized distribution. Overall, since February 23, 2020, wine sales have grown by 5.8% over the same period in 2019, with a significant acceleration in the last weeks of March, with peaks of 12% in that from March 22. The growth was mainly driven by PDO wines, with +7.5% (and +9.8% in the last week), a sign that we are trying not to give up quality, but also ordinary wine, at +5.8% (and +14.3% in the last week), which also means important attention to price, especially in a very difficult economic moment for many families. The category that performs worse, as said, is that of sparkling wines, which, in the period, grew by a modest 2.6%, but in recent weeks marks a double-digit drop (-14.8% in the last week). The dynamics linked to wine as a whole is clear,” Virgilio Romano, Business Insights Director at Iri, told WineNews, “while it takes more time to understand the dynamics linked to sparkling wines, and we must also consider that the great growth in sparkling wines recorded in the first few months of 2019 was supported by a strong promotional component, which in 2020 to date has disappeared.” An overall growth, however, which, it should be noted, obviously does not compensate for the losses of the business that the wineries develop in the on-trade channel, which is the one with the greatest added value, and even less in exports. But, in any case, a positive sign, which tells of the Italians’ desire to enjoy a good glass of wine that, at least for now, the COVID-19 crisis has not hindered.