Italy report: Prosecco’s new horizon

After many years of enjoying meteoric global success, Prosecco now finds itself in a double bind. Slowing sales in key mature markets, increased competition from rival categories, and sustained pricing pressures have sparked a debate about the need to diversify its identity to secure long-term relevance. Yet for every stakeholder who advocates a broadening of positioning through mixology and new drinking occasions, there are others who insist the category’s future lies in terroir expression, gastronomic suitability and drier styles. It’s an existential argument over the most fundamental question facing the category today: what exactly does Prosecco want to become?