Watch: 30,000 litres of Prosecco lost as fermentation tank bursts

A winery in Conegliano, Veneto has lost around 30,000 litres of Prosecco after an employee filmed one of the pressurised fermentation tanks exploding and spilling over last week.

The incident was captured on film by an employee of the winery and posted on Facebook by wine shop L’enoteca Zanardo Giussano.

The cause of the spillage, which is believed to have taken place early last week, has not been confirmed. It is unclear whether the tank had been over-filled with must or whether the tank lid had developed a fault.

Fortunately for the wine producing region, production volumes are expected to be up on last year, with the equivalent of almost 600 million bottles expected. 

Broken down, 493.3m bottles of Prosecco expected in the DOC region, up from around 440m bottles from last year’s harvest, which was affected by adverse weather conditions in the region, from late spring frosts to summertime drought.

Meanwhile, in the smaller DOCG area for Prosecco Superiore, over 100 million bottles are expected this year.

However, for the first time in over a decade, exports of Prosecco to the UK have fallen, dipping by 7% in the first half of the year, according to analysis from Italian farming association Coldiretti.

Coldiretti blames “the effects of Brexit” and “nationalistic fake news designed to discredit the Italian drink”.