In the cellar

Excellent grapes, full cellars: the paradox of Sicilian wine

Assovini has announced a high-quality 2026 grape harvest, whilst Confcooperative, Legacoop, Unci and Unicoop are calling for measures to tackle surpluses. With nearly three million hectolitres in storage, the key challenge is to manage supply

by Nino Amadore

9 August 2026

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3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Key points

Almost an entire harvest still in the cellar
People are being paid to produce less, and there are plans to distil
From surplus to supply management

3' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

The grape harvest in Sicily began a few days ago and promises grapes of excellent quality. Meanwhile, some producers are looking for ways to clear their cellars of the wine they have already produced. This is the dilemma facing the sector as it enters the 2026 season: nearly three million hectolitres in storage tanks, stocks up by almost 32 per cent in a year, seven million in public funding for green harvesting, and a call from the central cooperatives to resort to emergency distillation. Resources to produce fewer grapes, and others that could be used to remove excess wine from the market. This comes just as Assovini announces a harvest with promising prospects.

Gabriella Favara, president of Assovini Sicilia, emphasises “a journey characterised by quality, innovation and a constant pursuit of excellence, helping to add value to the regions and the people who look after them”. Shortly after her election, she also highlighted another priority: “Our aim is to listen ever more closely to the needs of the market”. “The outlook for the 2026 grape harvest in Sicily is decidedly positive,” adds Vice-President Pietro Pollara, who notes that water reserves have been replenished and the vines are in good health. “We expect a high-quality harvest.”

Almost an entire harvest still in the cellar

Gaetano Mancini, president of Confcooperative Sicilia, Filippo Parrino of Legacoop Sicilia, Andrea Amico of Unci Sicilia and Felice Coppolino of Unicoop Sicilia set out the other side of the story in black and white: ‘The wineries are preparing to receive the new harvest whilst the tanks are still full of wine’. If stocks grow faster than the market’s capacity to absorb them, they warn, prices and liquidity will be squeezed.

But the cooperative sector also presents a varied picture. Cantine Ermes, Italy’s largest primary-level wine cooperative, kicked off the 2026 grape harvest in the Trapani area with an operation that extends well beyond Sicily’s borders: over 3,000 winegrowers, more than 16,000 hectares, 16 production facilities and a harvest that spans seven regions over the course of around one hundred days. Chairman Rosario Di Maria expects yields to be ‘likely lower than in an ordinary vintage’, but notes that the first grapes show ‘good balance and interesting quality characteristics’. This model, based on scale and geographical diversification, introduces a further variable within the cooperative system itself.

The ICQRF figures do, however, give an indication of the scale of the Sicilian phenomenon. As at 30 June, the island’s wineries held 2.94 million hectolitres, compared with 2.23 million a year earlier: an increase of over 711,000. Of this total, 1.56 million are PDO and 1.10 million are PGI: over 90 per cent of stocks. This does not mean that all of it is unsold: a portion is maturing, certified, earmarked for bottling or already committed. However, the ratio between what remains in the cellars and what is about to be produced indicates an imbalance.

People are being paid to produce less, and there are plans to distil

This inconsistency becomes even more apparent when looking at the measures put in place. For the 2026 green harvest, 1,188 applications have been funded to the tune of around seven million euros: grants to remove the bunches before they ripen and bring the yield from the affected areas down to zero. The Region explains that the measure is intended to rebalance supply and demand where surpluses occur.

Now Mancini, Parrino, Amico and Coppolino are also calling for ‘crisis distillation’, that is, the withdrawal of some of the wine from the market. ‘It is not a structural solution,’ they write, ‘but it can help to restore a balance between supply and demand.’ The risk is that we end up correcting every year, downstream, what is not managed properly upstream.

From surplus to supply management

The decline in consumption is also shifting the focus at national level from promotion alone to volume management. This is a recurring theme in *Il Sole 24 Ore*’s analyses of the sector: new facilities, yields, storage and supply monitoring are becoming key factors in preventing production from growing faster than demand.

In Sicily, the paradox is all the more evident because it coexists with the narrative of a successful transformation: higher quality, more appellations, a stronger sense of territorial identity and greater focus on the markets. Yet a substantial proportion of the wine remains in storage, just as more is about to arrive.