Changing consumer habits and climate change are paving the way for new sparkling wine producers, such as the United Kingdom and Sweden, to challenge the hegemony of traditional producers – France, Italy and Spain – and gain a share of the market, experts say.
The recent “Prosecco and Spritz craze” has shaken up wine consumption habits. This “Prosecco effect” has accelerated the consumption of sparkling wines in Europe,” Edouard Cassanet, spokesperson for the National Federation of Crémant Producers and Processors in France, told Euractiv.
Sparkling wines such as Spanish Cava and French Crémant de Loire have also benefited from this surge in demand. The latter recorded an unprecedented growth of 5.7% compared to 2022, with 108 million bottles produced in 2023. “It is a wine that responds to new consumption patterns; it is affordable and has less alcohol than traditional sparkling wines,” Cassanet added.
Affordability is key in a context of high inflation. For example, while traditional sparkling wine like Champagne costs between 25 and 50 euros in France, a bottle of Crémant costs less than 20 euros. The same goes for Prosecco or Cava.
Not only have sales of traditional sparkling wines fallen, but overall wine consumption in Europe is also declining. Between 2010 and 2020, wine consumption fell by 24%, and the European Commission forecasts a further annual decline of 0.2% from 2020 to 2031.
In contrast, sales of new sparkling wines are booming.
A “sparkling” market
In Spain, Cava set a new record in 2023 with 252 million bottles produced, an increase of 3.9% compared to 2022 and a 10.6% increase in value, according to the official Spanish wine website.
Similarly, in Italy, sparkling wines and white wines now represent more than a quarter of total wine exports in value (€885.1 million per year), with a 9.1% increase in the first five months of 2024 compared to 2023, according to data from the sector press.
According to Eurostat data, from 2017 to 2021, extra-European exports of sparkling wines grew by an average of 7% per year. The main markets are the United States (31%) and the United Kingdom (28%).
In 2021, exports reached 636 million liters, an increase of 29% after a 6% drop in 2020 due to COVID-19. Prosecco (43%), Champagne (15%) and Cava (10%) make up the lion’s share of exports.
New competitors in the vineyard
Increasing demand for sparkling wines and climate change are attracting new competitors from Northern Europe.
“Grapes for sparkling wines are normally harvested earlier” than for still wine, “before they are fully ripe, to maintain acidity,” Jean-Marc Touzard, research director at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRAE), told Euractiv.
This, combined with a warming climate in Europe, makes sparkling wine production more feasible in cooler regions.
Specific grape varieties can also help. For example, Solaris, a grape developed in Germany in 1975, is well-suited to cooler climates.
In Sweden, the Särtshöga vineyard currently produces 5,000 bottles of Solaris and plans to increase this to 10,000 by 2026.
The Scandinavian country, a lover of bubbles, recently signed a contract with English vineyards to import their sparkling wine to meet domestic demand and diversify its range.
In the United Kingdom, most vineyards already produce sparkling wine. This is the case of Kent-based Chapel Down, the country’s largest wine producer, which aims to double sales between 2021 and 2026.
“Sparkling wine consumption is already well established in Northern Europe and the new climate opens up new prospects for producers,” noted Touzard, who is conducting studies on the outlook for 2050-2070.
This article is originally published on euractiv.it
