Italians are expected to welcome in the New Year by popping the corks of an estimated 40 million bottles of champagne and spumante, the Italian bubbly.
According to the Italian Farmers Confederation (Cia), Italians will spend 300 million euros on this New Year's cheer, an increase of 2.7% over last year.
An estimated 60% of the bottles will be consumed at home and among Italians opting for domestic spumante, 58% will choose the traditional sweet versions.
This past year as been a brilliant one for Italian sparkling wines with a 12% hike in exports to the lucrative United States market, where sales of spumante and prosecco will hit the threshold of 100 million bottles for the first time ever.
Exports were also up 8.7% to Japan, 9.8% to Spain and 11% to Germany, the number one importer of spumante and prosecco, which accounts for 26% of the sector's turnover.
Italy produces 252.5 million bottles of sparkling wine a year with 151 million bottles sold on the domestic market.
