Where does Italian wine go?

Where does Italian wine go?

Abroad, but if it stays in Italy it’s in the supermarkets or sold directly in the wineries. The new consumers are in America and in Asia, they are millennials and female.

Read for you by Donatella Cinelli Colombini

So most of the Italian bottles are destined abroad. The firs data regarding 2012 indicate an increase in export of 6,3%, a value which becomes 7,5% if we consider only the red appellation wines. All major Italian wine markets are on the increase, in decreasing order, USA, Germany, UK, Canada, Switzerland, Japan, Denmark, Holland, Sweden. The best performance in Japan (+32%) and Sweden ( + 23%) but the dimension of the USA market is what is most impressive: 640.168.534€ imported in one year.

These figures are the direct consequence of a change in “weight” of the consuming nations. In other words regardless that Europe remains the first market in the world for wine; actually its importance decreases gradually while USA and Asia are growing. In the period from 91-95 and 2011we see that the first nation for consumption, France, looses 20%, Italy and Spain loose 34% while the US show a +53%, China + 233% and Russia + 80%.

The 31 billion bottles opened every year in the world are destined

consequently to increase with a good rhythm of 5,3% per year but they will be opened in different places. That is why we must invest in exports.

But let’s see what will happen to the wine made in Italy that will remain on the domestic market. It is foreseeable that there will be a decrease in consumption in restaurants and an increase in home consumption. Inviting friends home for dinner is once again becoming a trend and consequently it’s necessary to invest in a good bottle of wine. So while in Italy the consumption per person decreases to under 40 litres per year and at the same time the grocery shopping decrease wine goes down by 2,9% in quantity, we can however assist an increase in price per bottle of 3%. Small encouraging sign.

Large retail groups are surely the first position for bottles bought (41%), followed by the wineries, and way behind are the wine stores, wine bars and shops. Even e-commerce, although o the increase is still a marginal channel.

Now for the last point of our analysis: who drinks wine in Italy? 60% of consumers are over 45 years of age. The habitual drinkers decrease dramatically especially among women (39%) while there is an increase in occasional drinkers, where the two genders are equivalent. The targets on the up are women especially young with a good wine culture. This female march forward with glasses in hand is maybe the reason behind the newfound success of bubbly wines. This will be the wine on the increase up until 2016 in the USA. Together with women another target to be kept an eye on are the millennials. In USA, a national that generally anticipates world wide trends, we see that they are the major consumers of bottles that cost more than 20$. Maybe they don’t drink like the baby boomer generation but maybe they drink better. In fact the news given out from Vinexpo (Iswr) foresee an increase in average prices per bottle of around 8,7% with a trend of growth that will favour mostly bottles that cost more than 10$ especially red wines. A picture which seems to privilege those who wish to drink well.