Author: Anne Burchett
Less formal and intimidating than Champagne and cheaper than most other sparkling wines, Italy’s Prosecco has seen its sales and popularity explode in recent years while wine consumption declines. What is its recipe for success?
Conegliano Valdobbiadene’s Rive (c)Arcangelo Piai
It is a truth universally acknowledged that wine consumption is declining worldwide, particularly in mature markets. Yet amid the prevailing doom and gloom, a handful of success stories bring cheer to the hearts of industry professionals. The biggest, and arguably the most audacious, is that of Prosecco.
Coming almost out of nowhere and in the sophisticated and competitive sparkling category, Prosecco went from 120 million bottles in 2009 to an astonishing 667 million bottles in 2025. Brava, Prosecco!
The first developments were admittedly organic and led by the on-trade in two key markets: the United States and the United Kingdom. Conveniently, the on-trade in both countries includes a large proportion of Italian establishments, keen to push products from their home country.
The financial crisis in 2008 accelerated the growth of what was still only a trend: Consumers had less disposable income but still wanted to celebrate. Prosecco, at less than half the price of Champagne, did the job. It was admittedly less sophisticated, being produced by the tank method, but beggars cannot be choosers. By 2010, Prosecco had overtaken Champagne in volume in the United Kingdom and the United States.
A report by Wine Intelligence in May 2012 pointed to the nascent market penetration of Prosecco: When asked which types of beverages they drink, 13% of regular wine drinkers answered Prosecco, up from 8% in 2007. In 2016, however, a consumer poll by the Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA) found that 97% of 18- to 24-year-olds surveyed drank Prosecco.
By 2017, the United Kingdom had been Prosecco’s No. 1 export market for a few years, alongside the United States and Germany, with all three markets accounting for 75% of Prosecco DOC sales.
Since then, according to IWSR, Prosecco sales grew by 7% CAGR in the United States and an impressive 17% CAGR in France, the country of Champagne and crémant, between 2019 and 2024.
Sales figures for 2025 reached 667 million bottles, according to the Prosecco DOC Consortium, “only” 1.1% growth year on year. The value of these sales stood at €3.6 billion, approximately the same as in 2024. About 80% is exported to 164 countries.
Despite the uncertainty caused by tariffs, the United States, now the largest export market for Prosecco, accounting for 23.8% of exports, saw exports rise by 8% from January to September 2025. Over the same period, the UK market, the second most important for Prosecco, also saw volume growth of 1.1%. France leapfrogged Germany to land in third place, with 21.1% volume growth over the same period.
The stratospheric success of Prosecco even changed alcohol taxation in the United Kingdom. In October 2021, Rishi Sunak, then Britain’s Treasury chief, announced the end of the 28% duty premium on sparkling wines, saying, “Over the last decade, consumption of sparkling wines like Prosecco has doubled… It’s clear they are no longer the preserve of wealthy elites.” Even if the measure was also intended to support English producers, bringing the sparkling wine duty in line with that on still wines of equivalent strength was a quasi-populist concession to the nation’s army of Prosecco drinkers.
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Reasons for success
“Let’s be honest, Prosecco is revolting,” drinks writer Henry Jeffreys stated in The Telegraph in April 2026, drawing predictable backlash. Without going that far, even its biggest fans admit that Prosecco has a neutral taste. The most common style, Extra Dry, has 12–17 g/L residual sugar, making it, in the words of a British wit, the Liebfraumilch of today, or, in marketing terms, a functional drink that delivers an alcoholic kick without overly engaging the brain or taste buds.
Prosecco’s neutral organoleptic profile, along with its consistency (no vintage variation), is one of its main strengths: It does not detract from conversation for people who are not that into wine (i.e., the majority of consumers), and it makes it a great ingredient in cocktails, be they the classic Bellini or the highly Instagrammable Aperol Spritz. This also played its part in Prosecco’s success.
Less formal and intimidating than Champagne and cheaper than most other sparkling wines, Prosecco does not have to be reserved for special occasions; it can be enjoyed in any setting as a little treat. It rules supreme at bottomless brunch, office celebrations, Mum’s drinks and girls’ nights in. And yes, consumption is skewed towards women. In short, Prosecco made sparkling wine accessible and informal.
Its affordability is also crucial for its appeal with younger generations, who do not always have the deep pockets of their parents.
Its name is easy to pronounce in most languages and easy to remember. It also sounds Italian, which gives it a veneer of allure.
That’s for consumers, but what about the gatekeepers? In the UK at least, retailers played a major part in Prosecco’s success. Despite the presence of big brands such as La Gioiosa and Mionetto, UK supermarkets pushed own-label Prosecco hard, as it offered better margins than Champagne. Some of the brands that subsequently entered the market, such as I heart Wines, were created by British importers who understood, and generously fed, British retailers’ margin appetite.
Celebrity brands followed. The most successful was that of singer Kylie Minogue, created by a stalwart of the British drinks industry and therefore designed to meet supermarket expectations.
The on-trade, where Prosecco started, continued to support it for very simple reasons: as a festive yet affordable aperitif, it boosts takings and delivers excellent margins.
Careful construction
Prosecco only became a DOC (denomination of controlled origin) in July 2009, when several regional IGTs (indication of geographical typicality) covering the broader Veneto and Friuli-Venezia Giulia regions were merged. Some of the surface area was on predominantly flat land, previously planted with red grapes, in preparation for ambitious future growth.
At the same time, the Prosecco DOC Consortium changed the name of the Prosecco grape to Glera, a local synonym, thereby trademarking the name Prosecco and ensuring it could be produced only in its original region. Grape varieties cannot be trademarked.
Everything was in place for managed growth. To keep up with demand, production indeed increased through the years — sometimes spectacularly, as in 2016, when it ramped up production by 45% in just two years to an all-time high of 3.55 million hectolitres.
The DOC gained a new and valuable growth opportunity with Prosecco Rosé, a blend of Glera with up to 15% Pinot Noir, which first entered the market in 2021 with the 2020 vintage. In 2025, it represented around 10% of global sales.
A new lower-alcohol category (8-9% ABV) now offers considerable and immediate growth potential.
Growth opportunities were seized with alacrity and an open mind by local operators. Celebrity wines are usually not produced from grapes grown on land owned by said celebrity; if Zonin 1821 had not agreed to supply the wine for Kylie Minogue’s Prosecco, a major growth opportunity would have been lost.
The growth of Prosecco has not, however, been just an organic groundswell and commercial deals. Large-scale generic promotions have also supported it. In 2025 alone, the Prosecco DOC’s promotion plan reached 39 countries with 382 events. In the United States, National Prosecco Week featured 1,955 points of sale in both the on-trade and off-trade, and targeted roadshows in San Francisco, Chicago, Raleigh and Washington, DC. A nationwide Prosecco cocktail contest was created in partnership with the US Bartenders’ Guild.
In Asia, Prosecco DOC was a sponsor at Expo Osaka 2025 in Japan, and in Hong Kong, it hosted the Prosecco DOC Tram & Jam Sparkling Fest, a travelling celebration through the city’s streets. More recently, the consortium sponsored the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.
Room for growth
Prosecco DOC’s more sophisticated cousin, Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco DOCG, offers some room for the category to grow. According to Sarah Abbott MW, their UK ambassador and an expert on the subject, “Their UK sales represent around 10% of the UK market. Having said that, the UK is still a major export market for them: 98 million bottles of Conegliano Valdobbiadene were produced in 2025, and only around 40% are exported. Essentially, this is the Prosecco that Italians drink. It is the only Prosecco denomination that has, since 2019, UNESCO Heritage protection for its hillside vineyards and patchwork agriculture.”
Yet several of the reasons for Prosecco DOC’s success do not apply to Conegliano Valdobbiadene: the name, for a start, that even influencers sometimes struggle to say on Instagram. Amusingly, most professionals call it “ConVal” for short.
Sarah Abbott MW adds, “It is a much more sophisticated product that does not have the neutrality or sweetness of its famous cousin: long ageing of both base wine and second fermentation is common. Also, Rosé is not permitted in Conegliano Valdobbiadene DOCG. Growers want to keep their vineyards planted with Glera, Bianchetta, Perera and Verdiso. Pinot Blanc and Chardonnay are permitted but quite rarely used. The growers of Conegliano Valdobbiadene work hard to differentiate themselves from the general category. There is one celebrity brand working with ConVa: Delle Vite, which is excellent and beautifully packaged. Interestingly, many ConVal producers look to the French model for articulating quality. They’ll talk about their approach as ‘grower’ Prosecco, and the single-vineyard Rive as ‘cru.’”
Lessons for the next Prosecco
Could crémant become the French version of the Prosecco success story? It is, after all, albeit in a more modest way, another success story in the wine and spirits category. With sales of 114.5 million bottles in 2024, +47% since 2016, crémant has benefited from the development and democratisation of sparkling wines, and the name crémant is equally evocative and easy to remember. But can the different origins work together to promote the category regardless of region? Generic promotion of crémant is currently non-existent in any market.
Drinkability appears to be the key word for wine in 2026, with producers attempting to seduce consumers back with easy-to-drink, affordable wines. The new Bordeaux Claret is a good example, and it could follow in the footsteps of Prosecco. It has the name, the volume potential and the promotional budget needed to establish and support it. Let’s drink to that.
About Anne Burchett
Anne Burchett DipWSET is a wine marketing and communications specialist with over thirty-five years’ experience in the wine industry. She is the UK correspondent for leading French online trade publication V&S News and also represents Centre-Loire Wines and Vinexposium in the UK. She is one of the hosts of the VOICE podcast series, an expert evaluator for the European Research Executive Agency (REA) and a wine judge.
