Sometimes there is some good news. 2021 begins with a breath of fresh air for the producers of the Chianti Wine Consortium: in the first quarter sales increased by 4% compared to the same period of 2020, which is equivalent to about one million more bottles of wine. The hectoliters of Chianti placed on the market, from January 1st to March 31st, were over 186 thousand compared to almost 179 thousand last year. A better result even than in 2019, the year before Covid, when the hectoliters of Chianti placed on the market in the first quarter were 182 thousand.
The Chianti Wine Consortium has 3,000 producers for 15,500 hectares of vineyards and an annual production of about 800,000 hectoliters. According to the balance sheet for the first quarter of 2021, Chianti wine represents 32% of the total Tuscan wine offer. For Marco Alessandro Bani, director of the Chianti Wine Consortium, “the data for the first quarter are an excellent sign that gives us hope for the rest of the current year as well. Although production has stopped, we see that consumer interest in Chianti wines remains very high. In these months of stalemate, as a Consortium we have never stopped: we have fielded many activities, both in Italy and abroad, to keep attention on the sector and maintain our market shares ”.
Looking to the near future, Bani hopes “that we can start again as soon as possible. The reopening of activities, which can be seen on the horizon in the latest statements by the Government, could give a decisive boost to sales in the Horeca channel and allow us to close 2021 up compared to 2020, the year in which, despite the pandemic, we recorded a sales increase of 1.2% “.