According to data published late last month by the Italian wine industry’s leading trade observer, IRI, La Gioiosa Prosecco DOC Rosé is the category’s top seller.

The survey covers Italy’s retail sales of Prosecco Rosé from November 2020 through March 2021, a five-month period following the Prosecco Consortium’s green light for the category last year (the wines were first released in Italy in November 2020).

According to the report, La Gioiosa Prosecco DOC Rosé Brut accounts for 13 percent of all retail sales. The data is even more impressive when you consider that La Gioiosa’s Prosecco DOC Rosé costs about 10 percent more than similar wines by its two leading competitors. It’s also interesting to note how promotional activities didn’t have the same weight in the brand’s commercial strategy as they did for most of the other competitors in the top 10. La Gioiosa was confident that brand loyalty and intense coverage by the main Italian retail banners would have played a significant role in the wine’s unbridled success.

“We are overjoyed that La Gioiosa Prosecco DOC Rosé quickly became one of our winery’s best seller,” says La Gioiosa international export director Flavio Geretto who led the launch campaign and who still oversees day-to-day sales operations for the winery. “We all thought that Prosecco Rosé would be a hit but it was still uncertain as to how the market would react. The fact that our Prosecco Rosé Brut has sold so well is an indication that consumers have confidence in our brand, even when we introduce a new product. We couldn’t be happier.”

“The Italian market immediately embraced this important new product,” says La Gioiosa director of sales for the Off Premise market in Italy, Mirko Baggio. “The response was so positive that it just took a few months for Prosecco DOC Rosé to revitalize the entire sparkling rosé category. We couldn’t be more thrilled that La Gioiosa Prosecco DOC Rosé is the top-seller of the appellation in the ‘off trade’ market (supermarkets and convenience stores). The even more important result becomes apparent if you look at the average retail price. Our wine has the highest average retail price among the top-selling brands” in the channels above.