Last year, Italian wine export sales reached a new record high of about 5 billion euro. The US confirmed themselves to be the most relevant market for European wine, but the biggest surprise was China (+26%), where Italian wine ranks third after France and Spain. Indeed French wine export sales increased during 2015, up from 6.4% to 8.3%, followed by Italy which registered an increase of 3.7% compared to the same time period, and then Spain with the positive result of about 2.7%.
AMERICANS DRINKS MORE ITALIAN WINE THAN ITALIANS – The picture is different if we focus on the U.S. market, in particular where Italian wine runs a long way. Starting in 1993, in this market, wine export sales registered a jump of about 500% thanks to research, innovation, and quality of specialty wine products. In 2015, Italy shipped 1.5 billion euro (+20%) to the US versus France which exported 1.4 billion euro (+23% over the previous year). Italian wine varieties are the top imported in the US which is the world’s largest consumer market, according to the Italian Wine and Food Institute. Americans are drinking more Italian wine than Italians themselves, data has shown, owing to the popularity of sparkling wines from the Southern European country and Millennials.
