Sparkling sales

While many persevere with Dry January this month, I’ve been looking at sales figures for what appears to be everyone’s favourite fizz, prosecco.

Data from retail analyst IRI reveals that prosecco continues to be the fizzy drink of choice among consumers, with 77 million litres purchased in 2016 – that’s 25 per cent more than Champagne, and 24 and 23 per cent growth in value and volume respectively.

It’s a good job a bumper grape harvest soon put an end to the prospect of a prosecco shortage that loomed this time last year.

According to a snapshot poll by Epos Now of 800 pubs across the UK, prosecco was also the most popular drink to welcome in the New Year. Between 11:30pm on New Year’s Eve and 12:30am on New Year’s Day, prosecco accounted for 18 per cent of pubs’ total drink revenues, just ahead of Champagne at 17 per cent.

I’ll end with some food for thought for all the prosecco fans out there: IRI notes that prosecco is cheapest in Spain, where it is almost a quarter of the UK price.