A Prosecco shortage could be coming, warn experts who say that suppliers are struggling to keep up with the demand of the middle classes favourite fizzy stuff.
New figures from market research firm IRI suggests that Brits are mostly to blame for the sparklling wine scarcity with prosecco sales reaching £356 million ($656 million AUD) in the period from February 2015 to February 2016 – that’s a 34 per cent increase on the previous year. To put it into perspective sales of champagne increased by just 1 per cent to £251 million ($463 million AUD) in the same year.
At this rate experts caution that the demand for the delicious drop will soon exceed supply meaning “mixologists” are going to have to get creative when making you Aperol Spritz.
One of the biggest reasons that wine suppliers can’t just up production is because prosecco is a protected regional product, meaning that it can only be made in the Veneto region of Italy.
“Like Champagne, Prosecco is geographically limited and can only be produced in a small region of Italy,” Toby Magill, head of beer, wine and spirits at IRI told the UK’s Telegraph.
“Supply is finite. Demand is growing everywhere in the world so there’s a limit on what retailers can get their hands on.”
So this is not a drill. Stock up because we are nearing the bottom of the barrel.
