CRISIS DISTILLATION COMES TO THE WINE WORLD... THE MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE GIANCARLO GALAN: PIEDMONT, CALABRIA, LAZIO, SARDINIA USE IT EVEN FOR DOC WINES AND MARCHE AND PUGLIA, ONLY FOR ORDINARY WINES

“The limited use of crisis distillation in Italian regions shows that the national wine sector is, on the whole, in good health,” commented the Minister of Agriculture, Giancarlo Galan about the data relative to the requests sent in from the various regions to begin the crisis distillation measure (which basically consists in the possibility for producers to distill surplus production). The measure was recently amended and extended to include also denomination of origin and geographical indication wines. “In addition to Piedmont and Calabria, which had advocated the adoption of the measure,” Galan continues, “Lazio and Sardinia have also requested it for designation of origin and geographical indication productions; Puglia and Marche have requested it only for ordinary wines”.
The initial estimate is 114 thousand hectoliters of Denomination of Origin and Geographical Indication wine to be subject to crisis distillation, concentrated mostly in certain areas that have expressed some difficulty on the market. The estimate for ordinary wines is a maximum of 135 thousand hectoliters, mostly in Puglia. Given these quantities, the estimated expenditure is around 7 million euros for Denomination of Origin and Geographical Indication wines and 2.9 million euros for ordinary wines. The total cost is far lower than the maximum limit of 10% of the national budget allocated to support the wine sector (23 million 239 thousand euros).