Italian sparkling wines have overtaken French bubbly in the USA not only by volume but - for the first time - even by value. This performance was revealed - on the eve of Vinitaly.USA (Chicago, October 20-21) - by Uiv-Vinitaly Observatory analysis of SipSource data for August, which will be presented during the first overseas trade fair entirely dedicated to Italian wine.

This historic overtaking, as evidenced after monitoring effective wine sales by US distributors, marks a change in leadership in the sparkling wine segment, with Italy seeing its market share improve to 35% against 31% for France and 28% for American sparkling wines.