News Analysis: Italy's sparkling wines exports keep booming, boosted by UK and U. S.'s 'thirst'

Latest data seemed to suggest export of Italy's sparkling wines would continue booming this year, following a record in global sales registered in 2014.

The export of Italian 'bubbles' kept increasing by an average 20 percent during the first five months of 2015, according to a recent report by Italian national agricultural organization Coldiretti.

Sales to the UK and the United States in the same period increased by about 55 percent and 43 percent, respectively.

A similar trend was seen in 2014: Italy's sparkling wines proved the most popular "bubbles" in the world, with some 320 million bottles globally shipped against 307 million bottles of French champagne, Coldiretti said.

Sales abroad overall grew an estimate 18.2 percent in volume and 14.2 percent in value compared to 2013, according to the Italian Institute for Services to Agricultural and Food Market (ISMEA).

"At least two key factors are behind this growth," Denis Pantini, head of Wine Monitor Observatory with Bologna-based Nomisma institute, told Xinhua.

"Firstly, sparkling wines overall are easier to drink than other wines, and thus meet the favour of new categories of consumers such as young people and women".

Secondly, Italian bubbles have found their right place in the market. "Take Prosecco, which is the most famous of our sparkling wines," the analyst explained.

"It has a very good quality-price balance, fitting the mid-range sector of the market. It does not rival directly the more expensive French champagne, or the lower-priced Spanish cava".

"Yet, it does compete in taste, benefitting from being a genuine 'made in Italy' product".

Produced in the northeastern regions of Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia, Prosecco is Italy's top-selling sparkling wine, followed by Asti Spumante from northwest Piedmont, and Franciacorta from Lombardy.

The 2014 production reached about 300 million bottles: some 200 millions of them were sold abroad in 2014, with an annual increase of about 25 percent, according to the Consortium of Prosecco DOC producers.

The UK became Prosecco's top foreign market last year, with 55 million bottles sold and a 60 percent export increase.

Once the first market for all Italian bubbles, Germany rank second with some 42 million bottles of Prosecco, while exports to the United States rose sharply by 34.2 percent.

This trend was being confirmed in 2015: up to May, Prosecco's sales to the UK grew by 64 percent and those to the US by 48 percent, Nomisma Wine Monitor estimated.

Exports in emerging markets like China have also been on the rise, although the country remains most passionate about red wines, and the world's largest market for them.

"So far this year, we estimate exports of Italian sparkling wines to China increased by 19 percent, and those of Prosecco by 24 percent," Pantini said.

Within the wider Prosecco DOC region, there is also a smaller district on the hills between the towns of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene where a premium-level Prosecco DOCG is produced.

The DOCG designation states the highest status for Italy's wines, and the Conegliano-Valdobbiadene gained it in 2009.

The area of production for this Prosecco DOCG is much smaller, namely 6,800 hectares of vineyards only, and rules more selective: the final high-quality result is averagely more expensive than Prosecco DOC and other sparkling wines.

Yet, the demand from abroad is on the rise as well.

"Undoubtedly, we have witnessed a positive growth," Innocente Nardi, president of the Consortium of Prosecco Superiore DOCG, told Xinhua.

"Sales abroad grew by 9 percent in volume and 11 percent in value in 2014. They remain good this year: we have no official figures yet, but we can estimate a 10 percent growth up to July".

Some 79 million bottles of Prosecco DOCG were produced in 2014: 58 percent of them went for domestic consumption, and 42 percent shipped abroad, mainly to Germany, Switzerland, the UK, and the US.

"The domestic consumption is still essential to us, and we are proud of it. We use to stress this factor, because Prosecco Superiore DOCG truly represents the best of 'made in Italy' culture, and this is crucial also for our image in the world," Nardi explained.

Another key ingredient would be a very "friendly" bubble. "Prosecco's organoleptic characteristics meet the needs of a modern consumer," he said.

"It is not too alcoholic, it is an easy taste as aperitif but also matches with different kinds of food, and it has a dry version and a more fruity one... This flexibility is key to winning the foreign consumers' favour".

The struggle to safeguard and protect the image and quality of their specific production also proved a winning strategy, the analyst added.

"Indeed, it was successful: the proof is that the word Prosecco now means a type of product, an entire category of sparkling wine, and not a single brand," Pantini said.

"In our surveys, we often ask foreign consumers and wine operators to name a private brand of Prosecco: more than half of them know none, but know of the wine itself".

This was a strong point so far.

Yet, the analyst warned it might bring about two risks: make it harder for a single producer to emerge in the global market; and underestimate the distinction in quality and prices, tarnishing the Prosecco's image in the eyes of foreign consumers. Endit