Italy

Summary

1 - The Italian vineyards
2 - The sparkling wine production and its marketing
3 - The sparkling wine consumption
4 - The sparkling wine importations
5 - The sparkling wine exportations
6 - Business opportunities for the viti-vinicole development

1 - The Italian sparkling wine vineyard

 Production areas: Piemont, Lombardia, Trentin Adige, Venezia, Emilie Romagne
 Grape varieties: white grapes (pinot blanc and gris, Moscat, Prosecco, Trebbiano, Malvasia) and red grapes (pinot noir)

2 - The sparkling wine production and its marketing

Production
 3rd global producer of sparkling wines
 380 million of bottles of classic and "Italian" (Charmat) method were produced (in 2010)
 Winemaking techniques: Traditional and Charmat process

Marketing
 376 million bottles of italian sparkling wines (352 million bottles according to Charmat method and 24 million bottles according to classic method) sold in Italy and around the world in 2010, of 380 million bottles of classic and Charmat methods produced.

• Classic method (2010)
  - 24 million bottles of classic method sold of which 10.2 million Franciacorta and 8.1 million Trento DOC.
  - 22,75 million bottles sold in domestic market and only 1.18 million bottles sold in foreign markets in 2010.
  - Lombardia is confirmed as the leading Italian region of classical method with 15 million 300 thousand bottles (64% of total)
• Charmat Method (2010)
  - 352 million bottles of italian sparkling wine so-called "Charmat" were sold of which 127 million in domestic market and 225 million dans in 78 foreign markets.

NB: In 2010, Prosecco is mainly exported in Russia, in Germany and in Brazil.

Focus: Purchases in million of bottles per designation, Italian method (Charmat) (2010)

Focus: Purchases in million of bottles per designation, Classic method (2010)

3 - The sparkling wine consumption

 5th global consumer of sparkling wines in 2010
 137.3 million of bottles (in 2010)
 It depends on the season: a high consumption during and after Christmas and New Yeard’s days
 Points of sales terminals: mainly in mass markets

4 - The sparkling wine importations

 16 million of bottles in 2008
 Suppliers: France, Spain, Portugal

5 - The sparkling wine exportations

- 226.18 million of bottles in 2010, of which 115 million bottles of Prosecco
- Italy exports in 78 countries in 2010.
- Main customers (2010): Germany, United-States, United-Kingdom, Russia and Switzerland.

 Information (2008): the sparkling wine exportations have been increasing by 29% in value and by 11% in volume. 3/4 of the exportations were shipped to The European Union, with important increases of the demand of The United-Kingdom (+98% in value) and of Spain (+88% in value)

6 - Business opportunities for the viti-vinicole development

 Spumanti industry is very dynamic
 Several grape varieties have been planting especially for the traditional method
 Surface area have been decreasing
 Evolution for the plantations and the vinification to more quality

Sources:
- Ubifrance
- Blog Vinexpo
- www.vins-et-bulles.fr / Vinexpo/ ISWR
- Winenews - November, 2011

Updating: november, 2011

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