2008 ITALIAN GRAPE HARVEST - PRODUCTION UP 10%. ISMEA AND ITALIAN WINE UNION STUDY: “MORE GENEROUS THAN 2007, ALTHOUGH DAMAGES FROM THE ABUNDANT RAINS IN THE CENTER-NORTH AND THE INCIDENCE OF PATHOGENS MUST BE ASSESSED”

Italy’s 2008 grape harvest should, at least in part, recuperate the losses that occurred during the 2007 harvest. According to an Italian Wine Union (UIV) and ISMEA study, the increase in production should be up by 10% this year. “The harvest, which is set to start on August 1, should” – read a recent press release – “be more generous than that of 2007, although the predicted recovery could be less than expected because of changing weather conditions that occurred during the spring and the beginning of summer”.

“However, an account of the damage caused by the abundant rains this year, like those that hit the northern regions in the second week of July, still needs to be made. They are precisely the abundant rains in the spring (which continued longer in the center-north regions) that have favored the development of Peronospora and Botrytis. The incidence of pathogenic agents is superior to that of 2007. Therefore, it is still early to make hypotheses on the quality levels, that however seem to be good where it has been possible to intervene. In any case, the evolution of the situation remains subordinate to the weather conditions that the vineyards will be met with in the weeks to come”.

“If looked at in detail, region by region, Italy is substantially divided in two: the northern regions have production averages that are stable or falling, while the south has more consistently increasing variations. It should be noted, that they were precisely the southern regions, primarily Sicily, that were the hardest hit by the anomalous weather condition of 2007”.