Impact Databank: Prosecco Continues To Sparkle In The U.S. Market
May 3, 2021While the growth of Prosecco marches onward in the off-premise—owing to build-ups related to the Covid-19 pandemic—shipments of Prosecco to the United States actually declined for the first time ever in 2020, falling 3% to 7.45 million 9-liter cases. The global Prosecco category grew by 4% last year to 50.2 million cases, according to the Prosecco Denominazione di Origine Controllata Consortium, and the U.S. remained the world’s third-largest market, after only Italy and the U.K. In 2010, Prosecco’s volume in the U.S. was less than that of both Champagne and Cava, but last year it accounted for over half of all imported sparkling wine volume in the market, according to Impact Databank.
Most of the top Prosecco brands in the U.S. continued to show healthy increases in 2020, but their growth has slowed somewhat compared to the torrid pace of recent years. E.&J. Gallo’s La Marca—the market’s top Prosecco brand—bucked the pandemic and, after a 25% rise, crossed 2 million cases for the first time. La Marca is now nearly three times the size of second-ranked Mionetto, and last year became the U.S. market’s largest-selling sparkling wine brand by volume—imported or domestic—according to Impact Databank.
Prosecco’s momentum has carried over into 2021 as retail dollars in IRI channels have surged 38% in the year to date, even though the first quarter is never particularly strong for sparkling wines in general. In addition, Prosecco’s off-premise volume increased 26.5% in the 13 weeks ending March 27, according to Nielsen.
As the summer selling season approaches, the category is about to receive a further boost from the full-scale launch of Prosecco rosé. After being officially approved by the Prosecco DOC consortium in May 2020, some rosé brands became available in the U.S. market late last year, including La Marca Rosé. In all of 2020, 1.58 million cases of Prosecco rosé were made, and the Prosecco DOC Consortium is forecasting a total of 3.3 million to nearly 4.2 million cases to be produced in 2021.—Juan Banaag
| U.S.—Top Six Prosecco Brands (thousands of 9-liter case depletions) |
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| Rank | Brand | Importer | 2019 | 2020 | Percent Change1 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | La Marca | E.&J. Gallo Winery | 1,920 | 2,400 | 25.5% | |
| 2 | Mionetto | Freixenet Mionetto USA | 840 | 840 | – | |
| 3 | Cupcake2 | The Wine Group | 600 | 700 | 16.7% | |
| 4 | Ruffino | Constellation Brands | 448 | 446 | -0.5% | |
| 5 | Zonin2 | 1821 Fine Wines & Spirits | 571 | 429 | -24.9% | |
| 6 | Lunetta | Palm Bay International | 298 | 310 | 4.0% | |
| Total Top Six | 4,677 | 5,125 | 9.6% | |||
| 1 Based on unrounded data 2 Includes a small amount of other sparkling wine Source: IMPACT DATABANK © 2021 |
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Tagged : Impact Databank, La Marca, Mionetto
