Vincent West and Joan Faus

CENICERO (Reuters) – The bottles Francisco Ibaibarriaga ordered in France for his tiny Betolaza winery, La Rioja, are not expected to arrive on time for Christmas.

“They told us that this is impossible. They won’t make it before May.” All items are sold out. It is impossible to do anything.” he stated.

The winemakers of Spain’s wine-producing country are working fast to get bottles filled in time for next month’s holiday peak. The third-largest country in wine production is not having it easy.

Santiago Frias from Bodegas Riojanas stated that the Christmas campaign was extremely important. He spoke before large racks of wood barrels aging wine. We won’t deliver our products to customers if we don’t have all the necessary materials to dress our bottles and put them together.

The demand for wine is rising as restaurants and bars reopen and get ready to celebrate the first major holiday season since the pandemic. As with other sectors around the globe, wine producers face rising costs and shortages. Spain is experiencing an inflation rate that has surpassed 29 years. Some supplies simply are not available.

Fredi Torres has three wineries in Spain. He said that prices were higher for bottles than cardboard, and that they are up 12% for cardboard, while wooden crates cost 100%. Because glass bottles are difficult to obtain in Spain, he purchased them from Italy as well as the United Arab Emirates. He placed his orders 3 months before the standard one-month deadline.

Torres explained, “It can be hard to know whether we will receive items on time.”

Jose Luis Benitez (director of Spain’s Wine Producers Federation) said disruptions in supply chains should resolve themselves over the next few months. There were sufficient bottles available to make sure that Spain does not experience a shortage at Christmas. A shortage in shipping capacity is slowing exports.

Damia Deas (chair of AECAVA), a business group that represents 90% of Spain’s cava sector’s revenues, stated there will be plenty of Spain’s sparkling cava to celebrate Christmas and the New Year. But less of it may be pink this year than usual because of a shortage of the white glass used to bottle rosé.

Although there are bottle shortages in certain regions, the glass industry association of the nation acknowledged that it expected peak demand to be resolved before year’s end.

Secretary general Karen Davies said that COVID-19 reorganized the operation of our organization, leading to bottlenecks which will require time to get out.