(AGI) - Coldiretti says that most of the Christmas and New Year toasts this season are likely to be made in Italian wine. According to the Coldiretti Farmers' Confederation, exports of bottles of sparkling wine went up by a record 24% during the first 8 months of this year, and that the overall estimate is that "over 200 million bottles will have been consumed abroad in 2011, out of a total production of roughly 400 million." The fact that sparkling wine has overtaken champagne is due "to the performance of Prosecco, in particular, over just a few years, which represents over half of all sparkling wine produced in Italy." Coldiretti stresses that "this success is due to the growth of its popularity in Germany (+5%), the leading importer, followed by a boom in the US (+31%) and in the UK (+21%).