Stock emergency: Chianti asks to bring forward the release of the 2021 vintage (to January 1, 2022)

Bringing forward the release of the 2021 vintage by two months, moving it from March 1 to January 1, 2022: this is the request of the Consortium of Chianti, Italy’s largest red wine denomination, to the Region of Tuscany, headed by Giovanni Busi, a necessary move to avoid a shortage of product on sale in the light of the drop in production, following the difficulties of recent harvests

The two-month advance may be adopted voluntarily by the wineries, for those products that have already acquired the quality characteristics laid down in the production specifications, and would also concern Chianti wines from the subareas and Chianti Superiore. Initial indications from the wineries indicate a drop in grape deliveries for the 2021 harvest of between 30% and 35%, due to the April frost and drought during the summer months, with a consequent increase in prices, between 90 and 105 euros per quintal, compared to 55-70 euros in 2020. Considering also the good sales performance of Chianti, stocks forecast for the end of 2021 will be at the lowest level since 2005.
“Prices have already risen by 25%”, explains the director of the Chianti Consortium, Marco Alessandro Bani, “and demand continues to increase: we cannot afford to let the market run out of product, and we cannot let Chianti go off the shelves of the large-scale retail trade, in favor of other competing denominations, which are marketed at lower prices. To get back on the shelves would take years and a downward price policy. Having a market with strongly fluctuating prices is not in the interest of any player in our chain, and it is not good for the Denomination itself either”.