Best of Budapest & Hungary

Hungary is the 10th-11th largest producer of sparkling wine in the world, according to the National Chamber of Agriculture (NAK) as around 200,000 hectoliters of sparkling wine are produced in the country every year.

According to a statement sent to the state news agency MTI, 75-80% of the sparkling wine produced in Hungary is sold on the domestic market, while a quarter to a fifth of it is exported. Among the most important destinations for Hungarian exports this year have been Romania, Canada, Estonia, Sweden and Latvia.

Imports into the country are more for diversification purposes, ranging between 10-20,000 hectoliters in recent years. Imports of sparkling wine are dominated by Italian products, but there are also significant imports from Germany.

It is also noted that the sparkling wine market is showing stable growth worldwide, both in terms of volume and value sold, and is the most dynamic category of wine products. Sparkling wine production has been growing almost continuously since the early 2000s, only to stall during the economic crisis in 2008 and the coronavirus epidemic, but quickly recovered, they added.

In the past 20 years, world sparkling wine production has grown by 70% and now accounts for 8% of wine production. Europe accounts for 80% of sparkling wine production, with a volume of around 16 million hectoliters. The leading producers are Italy, France, Germany, Spain – these four countries account for nearly three quarters of the world's sparkling wine production.

“Sparkling Wine is consumed all over the world for holidays, birthdays, weddings, family events, but also as an aperitif or as part of cocktails, so demand for the product is now stable all year round. However, it is mainly at the end of the year, in the last four weeks of the year, that sales spike," the NAK statement says.