In the United States, Italian sparkling wines have for the first time surpassed French wines not only in volume but also in value. This is the result, on the eve of Vinitaly.USA (Chicago, 20-21 October 2024), of an analysis by the UIV-Vinitaly Observatory of the SipSource data for August, which will be presented at the first overseas exhibition dedicated entirely to Italian wines. The historic overtaking, recorded through the monitoring of actual wine sales by US distributors, marks a change in the leadership of sparkling wines, with Italy increasing its market share to 35%, compared to 31% for transalpine wines and 28% for American sparkling wines.
A goal, the Observatory points out, that has been achieved mainly thanks to the inexorable rise of Prosecco, which, not by chance, has for the first time managed to catch up with and even surpass Champagne (28% against 26% respectively). The success of the denomination is reflected in the performance of the entire tricolour sparkling typology, which has overtaken white wines in the product mix of the Italian wine offer and now represents 37% of Italian sales in the US (35% by volume). In fact, between January and August, Italian sparkling wines were the only ones to see an increase in volume sales (+1.5% compared to an overall average for sparkling wines of -13%), thanks in part to the growing success of cocktails. Even in the Prosecco-Champagne neck-and-neck race, there was no history this year: +2.2% the trend in the first 8 months of 2024 for Italy’s most famous bubbles, -15.3% for the French luxury symbol.
In Chicago, at the Navy Pier exhibition centre, there will be more than 230 participating companies on 13 thousand square metres of exhibition space; more than 1650 labels will be available for tasting between wine and bubbles.
“We expect a lot from this fair – commented Veronafiere CEO, Maurizio Danese – but above all so do the 230 Italian companies that will be with us. Facilitating business is more than ever the watchword these days. We are convinced that Vinitaly.USA can become the trade fair tool of choice in this market and a fundamental lever for increasing the profiled incoming of operators to Vinitaly Verona“.
It is no coincidence that Vinitaly.USA, together with ITA, the Italian Trade Agency, is devoting a lot of space to market issues, with a 2-day focus on the Wine Business Forum. Last year Italian sparkling wines reached 936 million bottles sold worldwide. In the last 10 years, exports of Italian Spumante to the world have practically tripled, with a 351% increase in value in the USA to almost 500 million euros in 2023.
