Italians will not be cutting
back on their spending on sparkling wine over Christmas and New
Year despite the ongoing economic crisis, the observatory on
sparkling wines (OCSE) said Thursday.
Corks will be popped on just under 50 million bottles of
Italian-produced bubbly, or a total of around 420 million euros
worth of liquid fun.
This is comparable to the expenditure in 2013, although
much reduced from previous Christmas seasons, according to OVSE.
"It is a far cry from the 91 million bottles opened between
December 8 and January 6 2008-2009, but the anticipated drop is
more contained than in previous years," observatory president
Giampietro Comolli said.
Meanwhile, demand for Italian-made sparkling wine continues
to grow on the international market, where end-of-year sales
have risen from 90 million to 170 million bottles in 14 years.
"Italian bubbly is performing very well on foreign markets,
registering one success after another," Comolli said.
"And it is no longer the lightly sparkling and sweet
varieties" that hold sway, he added.
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