Among wine and musts, in Italy, on 2026, September 30, 62 million hectoliters of “liquid stocks”

In Italy, the 2026 grape harvest, one of the earliest on record, has already ended in many wine regions, or is drawing to a close. While the country awaits final figures on the latest harvest, with forecasts pointing to lean vintages across the main wine-producing nations (France is expected to produce 34-35 million hectoliters, roughly in line with Spain), today updated cellar stock data updated on September 30th, 2026 arrives, when a significant share of the new grapes had already been brought into wineries. Overall, the latest “Cantina Italia” data from Icqrf report 41 million hectoliters of wine (+14.2% compared to the same date in 2025), 12.8 million hectoliters of grape musts (+50.5%), and 8.9 million hectoliters of new wine still in fermentation (+92.8%). This amounts to more than 62 million hectoliters of “liquid stocks” currently stocked in cellars.
This represents a substantial volume of product which will need to find market demand or alternative outlets in order to avoid downward pressure on values and prices, a trend which, according to some observers, may already be emerging in certain important wine regions.
Overall, 56.8% of wine stocks are PDO wines, predominantly red (52.1%), while 25.3% are PGI wines, again mainly red (56.5%). The remainder consists of generic and varietal wines.
As usual, stocks of wines with Geographical Indications are highly concentrated. Just 20 denominations out of 523 account for 58.3% of total inventories. On the podium, there is Prosecco Doc, with 3.3 million hectoliters (9.8% of total PDO and PGI wine stocks), followed by Toscana Igt (1.4 million hectoliters, 4.3%), and Puglia Igt (1.3 million hectoliters, representing 3.9% of all Italian PDO and PGI wine stocks in cellars).