Bad news wine lovers, there's set to be a shortage of our favourite tipple after the worst harvest in 50 years. Wine production is said to have slumped to its lowest level in decades after France, Spain and Italy were all hit by freakishly hot and cold weather. The worst part? The areas most affected were those known for producing Rioja and Prosecco – two of the most popular wines in the UK. And as well as there being less wine being produced, the products that are available could become more expensive to make up for it.
Speaking to The Guardian, Dan Jago, chief executive of high end wine merchant Berry Bros & Rudd, explained: "Prices for things like pinot grigio or generic Spanish reds will rise by between 10% and 30% and it's [a question of] how much of that retailers will pass on. Prosecco was very hard hit by frost, so there will be less of it and the price will go up."
There may be a wine and prosecco shortage in 2018
The International Organisation of Vine and Wine has estimated that due to the bad weather, production has dropped eight per cent to 247 million hectolitres in 2018. Each hectolitre is said to be the equivalent of 133 standard wine bottles, so there could be 2.9 billion fewer bottles available this year! It's unlikely that stores will sell out entirely, so there's no need to go out and panic buy just yet, however you may want to stock up before prices do rise if Dan's predictions are correct.
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Brits are the biggest fans of prosecco in the world, and a 2017 report from The Consortium for the Protection of Prosecco revealed that out of the 410.9 million bottles of prosecco produced in 2016, one third came straight to the UK – equating to roughly 135,597,000 bottles!
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