Prosecco stocks dry up ahead of 2015 vintage

As we warned back in May, Prosecco stocks have dried up and won’t be replenished until the 2015 vintage comes onto the market in October.

Who drank all the Prosecco?

Speaking to the drinks business during a recent visit to London, Paolo Lasagni, managing director of Bosco Viticultori, said: “We haven’t got a drop of 2014 left.

“Right now there’s no Prosecco left – the 2014 vintage is finished and the 2015 vintage hasn’t been made yet. I’m quite sure some supermarkets will have had to cancel their Prosecco promotions as there isn’t enough to sell.

“The grapes will be picked in mid September and won’t be bottled until October, so things will be very poor from a supply point of view for the next month.

“It’s a very uncertain time at the moment as a lot of the supplier contracts aren’t closed yet. The next month will be very intense for us. Once the wine is ready, producers will be bottling like crazy in October to make sure there is Prosecco on the shelves in time for Christmas.”

Lasagni revealed that a lot of bars and restaurants in the UK are finding that they can’t buy Prosecco from their current distributors as they are out of stock, so are getting it through cash and carry instead.

He told db that the global thirst for Prosecco over the last year took producers by surprise. “No one expected such a huge increase in Prosecco consumption from the UK and the US, which are driving the growth.

“Grape prices were lower last year than they could have been, if they were slightly higher then global demand would have decreased. Supermarkets have been slashing their prices and selling Prosecco at cost price. Everyone has an eye on Aldi and Lidl,” he said.

Lasagni told db that around 80% of Prosecco sold in the UK is own-label – “The strength doesn’t lie with the producers, it lies with ‘brand Prosecco’,” he said, adding, “It’s a problem in Italy, a lot of producers don’t know how to build a wine brand.”