How the wine market has changed in 20 years.
Two decades of commitment for Istituto Grandi Marchi, which presented research on trends in Italian fine wines by Wine Monitor Nomisma.
In 2004, the world’s top wine consumption market was France, with more than 33 million hectoliters; 20 years later, it is the United States that takes the top step on the podium, with 34.3 million hectoliters of wine consumed. In addition, Spain drops out of the top 5 and the United Kingdom enters.
In the same period, the US more than doubles the value of imported wine (from 2.7 to 6.2 billion euros), even higher growth in Canada (+152%). On the opposite front, maintaining world leadership, France doubles the value of exports, but best of all (among the top 5) does Italy: +174%. Against this trend is Australia: -22%.
The wind has changed, even in Italy, and red wines in particular have been the losers: if 20 years ago they accounted for 54% of Italian production and 45% of national consumption, today they have dropped below 40%, both in terms of production and consumption (in a context where, at a total level, they have gone from 48.3 to 37 liters per capita).
Sparkling wines, on the other hand, have exploded: the category’s weight in total domestic consumption has doubled, from 7% to 14%. These are the data emerging from the research, carried out by Nomisma’s Wine Monitor for the Istituto Grandi Marchi, in the 20th year since the organization, which groups 18 wine families, among the most important production realities in Italy, united by the desire to divulge the culture, traditions and set of ethical and sustainable values that make up the excellence of made-in-Italy wine, was founded in 2004. The report, presented these days in Rome (Palazzo Grazioli), by Denis Pantini (Nomisma Wine Monitor) and the president of the Istituto Grandi Marchi, Piero Mastroberardino, analyzes the performance of Italian fine wines in international markets.
A kind of parallel history to that of the Institute, useful for observing the megatrends, in terms of perception and buying behavior, that have written the history of Italian premium wines in world markets. A look back 20 years in global wine consumption first shows a higher level of 6 million hectoliters compared to 232 today. This is not a big difference (-2.5%), but what has changed the most is the “geography” of consumption. Consumption is shifting and, as a result, imports are increasing and new competitors are appearing on the global scene. Even higher is the growth of sparkling in the incidence of export: from 6% to 24%, compared with a decline in bulk from 30% to 21%.
A qualitative repositioning of Italian wine exports that has moved simultaneously on several levels. Not only on typological upgrading (more sparkling, less bulk), but also on geographical destination (not only EU, but also North America and East Asia) and on price positioning, the latter resulting from an "upgrade" of denomination wines, particularly on the assortment front in the export basket.
Hence-and among other things-increases in average export prices that brought, for example, Piedmont’s PDO reds from EUR 3.88 to EUR 8.91 per bottle or Tuscany’s PDO reds from EUR 3.55 to EUR 7.18. Increases that drove the total bottled still wine category from EUR 1.99 to EUR 3.28 per bottle. In this scenario, the promotion activities of the Istituto Grandi Marchi have often represented a "pathfinder" role in those markets where quality Italian wine was still little known.
Just think of China or South Korea: the first activities carried out there date back to 2004/2006, when purchases of Italian wine in China and Korea amounted to just 2 and 7 million euros, respectively, while today, the same countries import 108 and 63 million euros of wine from Italy.
A role that is not only pioneering but also consolidating in those markets that are priorities for us, such as the United States and Canada, where even in these countries, from the Institute’s first activities to today, there have been significant increases in imports of fine Italian wines.
Source: WineNews