ROME, Jan. 31 (Xinhua) -- The most sought-after wine in Italy last year was the full-bodied, tannic red Brunello di Montalcino from the central Italian region of Tuscany, according to the Italian Institute of Services for the Agricultural and Food Market (ISMEA), which collects data on agricultural product prices on behalf of Italy's agriculture ministry.
Amarone, a muscular red from Veneto in Italy's northeast came second in ISMEA's ranking, followed by Barolo, a full red from the northwest region of Piedmont.
Brunello has been top-ranked by ISMEA for the third consecutive year now. In each of those years, ISMEA said the prices for the wine averaged more than 1,000 euros (1,100 U.S. dollars) per hectoliter factoring in all levels of production. The average price for Brunello in 2019 was 1,085 euros per hectoliter, the only Italian bulk wine above the 1,000-euro level last year.
Amarone is new to the second spot, checking in with an average price of 775 euros per hectoliter, followed by Barolo at 703 euros per hectoliter. These two wines flipped positions from the previous year's rankings.
As usual, the list of most expensive wines in Italy is dominated by red wines, among them northern Italy's Barbaresco and Chianti Classico and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano from Tuscany. The top white wine, the perfumed Traminer from northern Italy, fetched an average of 450 euros per hectoliter. The top sparkling wine in Italy comes from the Franciacorta region in northern Italy, where the average price is 325 euros per hectoliter.
"Prices moving up or down are the reflections of the size and quality of the harvest in the relevant area," Tiziana Sarnari, an analyst with ISMEA, told Xinhua. "But the overall trend is consistent: demand keeps growing for the top wines and more and more producers are starting to focus on lower production levels and increases in quality."
According to Marco De Filippis, a food and wine sector financial analyst with ABS Securities, wine prices in Italy could start to decline this year due to a new round of tariffs on wines exported to the United States from Italy and the UK's departure from the European Union.
"The economic circumstances are going to start creating new challenges for winemakers," De Filippis said in an interview. "But those issues are out of their hands. All they can do is keep working to improve quality."
