Valoritalia presents the Annual Report of wine in Italy.

Presented theAnnual Report 2025 by Valoritalia, a leading wine certification company with 37 operating offices throughout Italy, 219 certified appellations of origin equal to 56 percent of the national production of quality wines for a value of more than 9 billion euros. Now in its seventh edition, the study highlighted the sector’s performance in 2024, underscoring the solidity of the Italian wine market even in the current decidedly uncertain international context. Indeed, the last five years have been compromised by a series of unexpected dynamics that continue to determine a framework of economic indeterminacy between the Covid epidemic, two ongoing wars and the recent threat of U.S. tariffs.

Valoritalia director general’s comment

“Despite the complex international context,” stressed Giuseppe Liberatore, director general of Valoritalia. 2024 is confirmed as a year of consolidation, not brilliant but still positive, with 2.019 billion bottles placed on the market, slightly down from 2023 (0.46 percent) but up 1.4 percent compared to the average of the last five years. A particularly significant figure that shows how the Italian supply chain maintains the high volumes of 2021, achieved with the unexpected consumption boom of the covid era, with more than 110 million bottles more than in 2019, a sign of competitiveness of our companies even in difficult times like this “.

The results of the report

However, the report shows significant evidence among the various product categories: predominantly red wine appellations contracted by 6.8 percent while sparkling wines gained an important +5 percent. This trend has been evident for some years now and reflects the changing preferences of consumers who are increasingly oriented toward bubbles and ready-to-drink wines. At the same time, DOCGs, for the third consecutive year, suffer a loss (-2.3 percent) as do IGTs (-6.3 percent), which in 2023 had put up a mighty 16.5 percent increase, while DOCs, which account for 58 percent of the value of certified wine in 2024 (amounting to 5.35 billion), rise 2.7 percent.

The word from Giuseppina Amodio

“The data show a gradual realignment between supply and demand, in which the competitiveness of appellations is no longer played out solely on historical value, but on the ability to intercept consumption dynamics that are increasingly oriented toward versatility,” commented Giuseppina Amodio, Operations Director of Valoritalia.

But the most interesting element that emerged from the report turns out to be the variability of production according to the size of the appellations: the smaller a designation is, the more volatile volumes would tend to become. According to the data, of the 219 appellations certified by Valoritalia, the top 20 account for as much as 86 percent of bottled wine, the top 40 nearly 95 percent, and the bottom 139 barely reach 1.4 percent. The same can be seen in terms of numerical volumes where only 12 percent of the companies exceed 50 million in turnover with the remainder barely going over a million.

The comment of Francesco Liantonio, president of Valoritalia

“A dissimilarity that highlights an ambivalent structuring of quality Italian viticulture,” stressed Francesco Liantonio, president of Valoritalia. “the high number of denominations represents a strength in terms of representation but also a structural limitation if the organizational and dimensional aspects related to the representation of consortia are not considered carefully enough. A limited size of the denomination implies, implicitly, an equally limited operational capacity of them that struggle to carry out the basic functions of protection, promotion and enhancement. For this reason, voluntary reform of the consortium system today could be the key to bringing fragmented local entities back to decision-making unity. A direction that is increasingly necessary, especially in this period of geopolitical uncertainty, falling consumption and the continuing threat of U.S. tariffs, which, although they have not yet materialized, are already creating numerous uncertainties.”

The first quarter 2025

The report also focused on the first months of 2025 showing a -3.3 percent drop in bottlings, a decline blamed on the uncertain condition related to U.S. duties and the resulting caution of U.S. operators.