People drink a lot of sparkling wine during the end of year holidays. There is a lot to choose from. Admittedly, champagne is still the most prestigious bubble, but in volume, prosecco is the winner.
Correction/clarification: This is the ranking according to export volumes. (Germany actually produces more bottles than Spain, but most of it is consumed domestically. You can see more details in this article on the world sparkling wine market.)
1. Prosecco
Around 500 million bottles of prosecco are sold annually; 70-80% of it is exported. Prosecco will probably break export records this year, 2021.
The United States and the United Kingdom are by far the largest markets for prosecco. France comes a bit surprisingly in third place but very far behind.
2. Champagne
Champagne sells between 300-325 million bottles a year. 2020 was an exception with only 244 million bottles. France is the largest champagne market, and exports are around 50%.
The United Kingdom and the United States are the most important markets. In 2020, Sweden was ninth in the export league, with 3.3 million bottles.
3. Cava
Cava sells typically around 250 million bottles. In 2020, however, the figure was down to 215 million. Cava exports 70% of its production.
Germany is the leading market, followed by the United Kingdom, Belgium, the United States and Japan. Sweden comes in seventh place with 7.5 million bottles. (Excuse our Sweden-focus, but we ARE Swedish.)
Travel: Come on a wine tour to Champagne with BKWine.
Additional comment:
Please note that this ranking is for sparkling wine export from a specific region. If we look at the total country production, not exports or value, the picture is different:
1. Italy (unsurprisingly)
2. France
3. Germany
4. Spain (Germany and Spain are almost level)
5. USA
For more details, refer to the article linked at the top.
6 Responses
You do not mention Italy as a major market for Prosecco. And what about the large quantities of sparklers of all kinds produced in both Germany and Russia/Ukraine ? They figure high in the volume stakes also.
You’re certainly correct that Germany makes an awful lot of sparkling wine (and maybe a lot of awful sparkling wine?):
https://www.bkwine.com/features/more/the-world-market-for-sparkling-wines-which-are-the-winners-and-losers/
Maybe the author takes into consideration that in Germany it is not really any specific appellation/region? Or perhaps these numbers are based on exports?
The author will have to speak for herself. ;-)
David, we’ve added a clarification in the text. Thanks for spotting the error/ambiguity.
As for Russia and Ukraine, they make 4.4 million hl and 0.7 Mhl respectively, total wine production. Russia does make a lot sparkling, but they don’t quite reach up to Spain’s level.
Checking the total production volumes, instead of the export rankings, the picture is this:
1. France
2. Italy (close behind)
3. Spain
4. Russia
5. Rest of the world makes just a little bit less than France, a little bit more than Italy.
Actually, these are old numbers, from 2013. The more recent figures from 2018 show a different picture (total country production, not exports or value):
1. Italy (unsurprisingly)
2. France
3. Germany
4. Spain (Germany and Spain are almost level)
5. USA
Russia seems to have dropped of the chart altogether.
Thanks Per for checking the figures. Statistics from Russia (same for China) are notoriously « political » anyway. The appearance of Germany in the top 3 confirms what I thought.