Asti sparkling wines are undoubtedly experiencing a period of recovery. Sales jumped in 2007 by 11% at 79m bottles, thanks to the progression outside Italy and particularly in some markets such as Russia. To place the discussion in the right perspective, I would highlight that Asti denomination is characterized by quite large producers, thanks to the significant size of production and that the consortium invested heavily last year to revive the product. Total sales nearly touched 600 thousand hl against 531k of 2006. Looking at this performance over the long term, it clearly represents a leap after years in which the highest annual growth was in the region of 4% and with a couple of years (2003-04) in which volumes sold were actually down Sales are mainly supported by foreign sales, which are now 80% of the total, a value among the highest for Italian wines. International sales were up 13% in 2007 after a stop in 2006 (+2%). It must be said that even in Italy 2007 was the best year since 2000: sales increased to 117k hl, +4.4%, although they remain below the level of 130k hl that Asti had reached in 2000. Moving to the detail of retail sales outside Italy, we can say that the process of geographic diversification continues: non core markets (ie from n.10) were up 40% in 2007, after a growth of 20-25% in both 2005 and 2006. The second very important highlight is the Russian market, which now accounts for 9% of total sales of Asti with 7m bottles (slightly more of 10% of exports). The graph shows the progression in the Russian market, which in 2000 absorbed only 500k bottles: the annual growth in 7 years is 52%, confirmed in 2007 with a +48%. This performance offset the losses in other markets such as Canada (-22%, after the exploit of 2006, back to 1m bottles), Japan (-19% to 1.6m bottles, now far from 2.3m bottles of 2004) and Portugal (-11%, the third consecutive decline, now 1.75m bottles vs. 2.2m in 2005). The key markets are still Germany, where sales have bounced by 5% (2006 -3.6%) to 15.6m bottles and the United States with 12.4m bottles (stable, very close to the historical maximum 13-13.5m bottles). Asti is one of the few Italian appellations that has very big brands (Gancia, Cinzano, ...), and only large companies can afford relevant investments in promotion. But the Asti renovated success depends non only on marketing, but also on the ability to properly manage the relations between industry and viticulture. And do not forget product innovation, that in many other Italian wine regions still remains a sort of taboo.
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