The Truth and the Potential Consequences

If you’re a Prosecco fan or you just like to keep up to date with current wine industry information, then you will have noticed reports in many of the broadsheet and tabloid newspapers, or on their websites, about rumours concerning a potential shortage of Prosecco this year due to a poor grape harvest in 2014. The “wrong sort of weather” was to blame apparently; too much rain and lower than normal temperatures. Frequent, torrential rain resulted in low grape yields or grapes that just weren’t of the required high quality standard. But, in reality, this “shortage” has only come about due to a huge rise in demand for Prosecco over the last few years. The sparkling wine industry is struggling to keep up with the still rising demand.

The Prosecco Region Restriction

Prosecco sparkling wine is made exclusively with one type of grape, the Glera or “Prosecco” grape; it can also only be called Prosecco if it has been made in the Veneto region of North Eastern Italy, according to the Italian sparkling wine producing authorities. There is only so much land in this region suitable for planting vineyards to grow the Glera grape and so it stands to reason that if the grape harvest isn’t particularly good, then it just isn’t possible for manufacturers to produce the same amount of Prosecco as they have been doing in past years. Growing the perfect Glera grape is no simple task, the weather needs to be just right, not too much sun and not too much rain and whilst sprinklers can be used to compensate if there is not enough rain, it is very difficult for grape farmers to control the effect of higher than normal temperatures on the grape crop.

The Prosecco region has differing terrain types where the Glera vineyards are planted, which only adds to the complication. Glera grapes grown on higher slopes, where the soil is more acidic and less nutritious than lower slopes, tend to produce Prosecco that is slightly sharper and more mineral rich. The higher slopes are also affected to a lesser degree by the temperature of the sun due to the air temperature being generally cooler at higher altitudes. This means that the Glera grape harvest from higher slopes hasn’t been affected quite so much and you may well see that supply of certain brands of Prosecco appear to be more readily available than others.

Does a shortage mean that Prosecco prices will rise?

There has been much media speculation that Prosecco prices will rise as manufacturers attempt to ensure that their company profits are not hit too hard as a result of lower production levels. This has yet to happen but will come as no surprise if it does. A price hike would probably have little effect on demand due to the fact that a good bottle of Prosecco is still a lot less expensive than a good bottle of Champagne, the main reason for its soaring popularity in the first instance.

Buy Award Winning Prosecco on the Premier Estates Wine Website

At Premier Estates Wine, our team of experts have been closely monitoring the grape supply situation and we have maximised production of our award winning Prosecco in order to meet the projected demand so that our customers don’t miss out.

We currently have no plans to increase our Prosecco prices as we know that our customers come to us expecting great deals and may be disappointed if we couldn’t deliver. Take a look at the great Prosecco offers on our website, with a case of 6 bottles available for just £39 and that’s all you pay as our UK delivery service for cases of wine, is completely free of charge. If you don’t want a whole case, we can even deliver just a single bottle for you to enjoy for only £7.99, and, once again, UK delivery is free of charge for single bottles. We have also recently added 20cl mini Prosecco bottles to our sparkling wine range and these are available at £33 for a case of 12 bottles with free delivery in the UK. Order yours now and discover what everyone is talking about!