Record-breaking Italian sparkling wines: in 2024 over a billion bottles on the market (+8% over 2023

A driving force of exports, and a bulwark of domestic wine consumption, Italian sparkling wines are about to surpass the record quota of 1 billion bottles produced and marketed in 2024; of these, 355 million (+7%) will be uncorked between Christmas and New Year’s Eve in Italy and in the world. A record, states the Wine Observatory Unione Italiana Vini - Uiv and Ismea in the usual report of the end of the year, that demonstrates the strength of a typology that is resistant to economic crises, conflicts, and, at this point structural difficulties of the industry. Between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, according to the analysis, Italian sparkling wine consumption will focus mainly abroad with 251 million of uncorked bottles (+9% compared to 2023), and 104 million in Italy (+2%). With a significant drop, instead, the Champagne market will close at -8% (5.1 million).
The financial statement of 2024 (1.015 billion bottles, +8%) detects the strong countertrend of sparkling wine type not only compared to still wines, but also to the consumption of other alcoholic beverages, from beer to spirits, excluding cocktail segment, that, on the contrary, represents an increasingly more strategic lever of acceleration also for made in Italy sparkling wines. “Spritz trend”, in acceleration in all the key areas of the demand starting from the Usa, according to the estimates of the observatory, translated into 2.8 billion of cocktails Italian sparkling wine-based (particularly Prosecco, and other Charmat), for a total of around 340 million of bottles dedicated to the mix. A determining factor for the export of this year standing out in an estimated growth on behalf to volumes of 9%, aided by the umpteenth exploit of Prosecco, with Doc and Asolo, and the double-digit growth of other Metodo Charmat wines, explains the Observatory of Wine Uiv-Ismea.
According to it, sparkling wines with controlled designation of origin (Doc), and controlled and guaranteed designation of origin (Docg) dominate the market anyway, representing around 80% of the bottled. And, if until 20 years ago, “the line of Po River”, still underlines the Observatory, was hardly ever crossed, today, sparkling wine is produced all over Italy, with 70 controlled designation of origin denominations, and 17 controlled and guaranteed designation of origin ones.