Record grape harvest, but there is the consumption issue

"While Italian winegrowers are worried about US tariffs, the wiping out of the Russian market, high stock levels, young people not drinking wine and WHO anti-alcohol campaigns, one of the best harvests ever is on the way.

Attilio Scienza, Professor of Viticulture and Oenology at the University of Milan for decades, is convinced of this. 'An excellent harvest is looming,' he explains, 'both in quality and quantity. After two poor years, we will be back close to 50 million hectolitres (Assoenologi, Ismea and Uiv will give official estimates on 10 September ed). But, above all, it will be a quality harvest. The warm weather in June and July favoured excellent ripening of the grapes everywhere. Then in August, so at the right time, came the rains. Even in the south and in Sicily where we often have to deal with the lack of water. This year I do not see any critical regions. They all have quality raw materials with grapes that have the right ph and a great presence of aromas'.

According to Scienza, there are high expectations in Franciacorta, where the year passed without hail or spring frost. High-quality Pinot Noir and Croatina will be harvested in Oltrepò. Satisfaction with the harvest is to be found in Veneto (especially for Valpolicella and Prosecco) and in Friuli for Pinot Grigio. Tuscany, in all likelihood, will be among the few areas that will harvest fewer grapes because independently many producers have reduced yields and thus production. Excellent prospects for Verdicchio in the Marche. "Overall,' adds Scienza, 'I foresee a harvest to mark on the calendar.

And much thanks to the climate. 'We often talk about the negative effects of climate change,' he continues, 'but there are also positive effects. The prolonged heat has favoured a perfect ripening of grapes that in the past, especially in the North, never ripened. Until the 1980s, bad wines were produced in Italy precisely because the grapes did not ripen sufficiently and it was necessary to intervene in the cellar. That is how the methanol wine scandal came about. Since then, however, we have changed course: research has made available efficient clones for homogeneous production, forms of cultivation that favour the photosynthetic capacity of the plants, graft carriers that react to water stress and lack of minerals. The climate remains decisive, but investments have helped'.

The product and quality are there, what is missing is the market. "We need to produce less. The producers of the great DOC wines are self-regulating but it is not Barolo, Brunello that have problems. The problem are the common wines produced in the plains with yields of 400 quintals per hectare against the 40 of the great denominations. Those do not bring value to Italian wine nor income to producers with grapes paid very little'. The difficulties are not only upstream, but also downstream of the chain with an asphyxiated market. Young people who do not drink wine are a concern, which will mean fewer consumers in the future. 'To bring young and old closer to wine,' Scienza concludes, 'the lever of tourism is important. But the trend must be reversed. Wine should no longer be an accompaniment to dishes or an addendum to a visit to a village. Wine must become the pivot of a new strategy'.