Exports of italian wine have dropped four percent so far this year after the virus forced the closure of restaurants in Italy and elsewhere, hitting the country's producers and exporters hard. The pandemic has reduced demand to the lowest level seen in 30 years, Italy's agricultural trade union Coldiretti said on Friday.
 
In June, the Italian government adopted a decree allowing some 70 million bottles of surplus wine stocks to be turned into hand sanitiser gel, to help make space in cellars while easing sanitiser shortages during the emergency. But many winemakers had been understandably reluctant to send off their produce to be turned into sanitiser - particularly as it tends to be the best bottles left languishing in cellars.