Pinot Grigio delle Venezie holds up to the Covid, is stable on the markets and looks to the future

Italian wine’s biggest names are looking to the future, tracing a route in which the world, during the past months, has been struggling to overcome the Covid-19 pandemic, like DOC delle Venezie, the “home” of the Italian Pinot Grigio (it alone represents more than 80% of production, ed.). Although it has survived the first months of 2020 so far unscathed, it is still considering measures necessary to manage tomorrow. Following in the footsteps of other large territories, it has asked its specific Regions (Veneto, Friuli Venezia Giulia and Trentino) for the green light to reduce yields and stockage. The Consortium, led by Albino Armani, however, “is urging an alliance of the Northeast DOCs to support a balanced management of Pinot Grigio and an equitable distribution of value”. Bottling data, at the end of May, were substantially stable compared to 2019 (+ 0.39%, and 611.167 hectoliters), and this is good news. As the grape harvest approaches, though, he next few months will be, for everyone, in the name of uncertainty. Even though the harvesting season promises to be less fruitful compared to last year (the very first estimates consider -15%), the DOC delle Venezie Consortium has promoted establishing a working table together with the representatives of the Triveneto DOCs, to share coordinated management measures of the production potential. In this way, they will be able to keep the offer in balance and guarantee the value of the Northeastern Pinot Grigio as the number one export of Italian still white wine and great wealth of our wine system”.
“The most recent Board of Directors meeting of the Consortium reiterated the need to keep a permanent table open for the comparison of Pinot Grigio del Triveneto which represents more than 80% of the Italian total” declared Albino Armani, president of the Consortium of the Venezie, “to encourage programmatic and shared management in the vineyard area of ​​the Northeast with methods that we hope, in the near future, we will be able to extend to producers in other Italian regions. We have worked with the representatives of the Triveneto DOCs, arriving at a reciprocal vision and, therefore, the proposal of concrete management measures at a territorial level on the individual denominations in view of the 2020 harvest. These include reducing the certifiable yield to 150 quintals per hectare and activating stockage management, with the purpose of maintaining the value of Pinot Grigio”.
This alliance represents an important step for the protection of the value of the Pinot Grigio supply chain. It is a territorial group spirit attitude, which, hopefully, can soon become an example to be able to apply alternative traceability systems on the entire Pinot Grigio Italia system, which today has reached 43% of the variety in the world.

The DOC delle Venezie has to date, resisted very well to the impact of the measures the worldwide Pandemic has imposed, benefiting from a constant market trend compared to 2019. The merit goes, above all, to distribution on the international large-scale distribution channel.
“Its stability is the result of a consolidated trend in recent months, which at the moment has not been affected by the economic crisis. Our board constantly monitors the market, we are prepared to intervene to ensure there is a balance between international demand and supply to protect the supply chain and counter any speculative trends. With this in mind”, added Armani, “we are looking at the next harvest with particular attention and a sense of responsibility, in order to maintain market balance”.

Focus - The measures Doc delle Venezie requires
- Redefining the yield per hectare provided for in Article 4 paragraph 5 of the production measures to 18 tons per hectare, and the reduction of the certifiable yield to 15 tons per hectare;
- Activating stockage management referred to in article 39, paragraph 4, of law number 238/2016 for quantities of product appropriate for Pinot Grigio delle Venezie DOC obtained from grapes exceeding 13 tons of grapes per hectare up to the maximum permitted production of 18 tons of grapes per hectare;
- Confirmation of excluding from the measure productions obtained from the 2020 harvest that are also certified with the organic system;
- The traceability, in harvest and wine cellar operations, of the productions obtained with the National Quality System of Integrated Production (SQNPI) for the purpose of a possible different management of certified productions in any stockage unlocking operations;
- The release of all or part of the volumes which will start on March 1, 2021.