Italian sparkling wines are on track to break the one-billion-bottle milestone in 2024, with 355 million (+7%) expected to be uncorked during the Christmas and New Year festivities alone. The data, revealed in the year-end report by the Uiv-Ismea Wine Observatory, underscores the resilience of Italy’s sparkling wine industry in the face of economic turbulence, geopolitical conflicts, and structural challenges.
Holiday consumption of Italian bubbly will be heavily skewed toward international markets, according to an analysis by the Italian Wine Union and the Institute for Agri-food Market Services. Between Christmas and New Year, 251 million wine bottles will be opened abroad (+9% compared to 2023), while 104 million will be enjoyed domestically (+2%). Meanwhile, champagne is expected to falter, with sales projected to decline by 8% to 5.1 million bottles.
For 2024 as a whole, the sector’s anticipated output of 1.015 billion bottles (+8%) stands out against a backdrop of sluggish performance in other categories of alcoholic beverages, including still wines, beer, and spirits. One notable exception is cocktails, which have emerged as a growth engine for sparkling wines. The global “Spritz phenomenon,” driven by booming demand in key markets such as the US, has fueled the production of an estimated 2.8 billion sparkling wine-based cocktails, primarily featuring Prosecco and other Charmat-method varieties. This cocktail craze accounts for roughly 340 million bottles and is a pivotal factor behind this year’s forecasted 9% rise in export volumes.
Leading the charge are sparkling wines with controlled and guaranteed designations of origin (DOC and DOCG), which represent around 80% of total output. Prosecco remains the industry’s star performer, but other Charmat-method wines are also seeing double-digit growth, cementing Italian sparkling wines as a formidable force in the global market.