Prosecco DOC Consortium says 'there will not be a shortage' of Prosecco this year

By Erin Smith

Published: 09 June, 2015

The Prosecco DOC Consortium has responded to recent reports of the potential shortage of Prosecco saying "that there will not be a shortage of Prosecco in the coming months."

The Consortium is the institution charged with protecting and upholding and promotion the standard of Prosseco DOC.

The group confirms that the 2014 harvest was affected by some hard weather and that yields were less than the maximum yield. However despite being having lower yields that Consortium wanted to reassure Prosecco drinkers that certified production yields were still up 17.9% more than the previous year's harvest.

Further the Prosecco DOC has also ""ruled out any significant price increase during the summer" and despite the "increasing interest and demand in Italian sparkling wine with which the Consortium's productions are prepared to keep up."

At the London Wine Fair 2015 several suppliers said that promotion activity within the supermarket sector was also contributing to the increase in demand.

According to a recent report released by Wine Intelligence value sales of Prosecco rose 55% in the UK last year.

Further the fourth annual category report produced by Lanson, which was released last month, said that the value of sparkling wines as a category rose 83.1% on volumes that were up 15%. Further the report sited that int he off-trade volume had increased 25%, with sales for Italian sparkling wine up 61% to £372.9m.

However, several suppliers at the London Wine Fair said that part of the demand issue was related to supermarkets and promotional offers through that channel.

Stefano Girelli of The Wine People said that double digit growth was putting pressure on supply, but warned that "promotion are not going to help."

Prosecco was first granted the Controlled Designation of Origin (DoC) status in 17 July 2009, with Consortium being set up in November that same year.

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