“IT’S TIME TO STOP MAKING REASSURING PREDICTIONS ABOUT THE GRAPE HARVEST... CONSUMERS MUST BE SERIOUSLY INFORMED OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND WHAT VITICULTURE IS DOING TO CONFRONT THIS” THE DENOUNCEMENT BY PROFESSOR OF VITICULTURE AT MILANO, ATTILIO SCIENZA

During the usual end of summer discussions on the grape harvest, www.winenews.it offers an exclusive interview with Attilio Scienza, Professor of Viticulture at the University of Milano, whose opinion is decidedly discordant from the general comments. Scienza makes an emphatic note that, “It is time to stop making grape harvest forecasts - especially in a country like ours that has viticulture from Brennero to Sicily – which are practically impossible to explain in a generic way.”
What bothers the Professor is the fact that the uncertainness of the outcome of grape harvests is not accepted in Italy. “Abroad, no one dares to create communications on a fact that is so uncertain as the grape harvest. There exists only in Italy a vast echo for an event for which forecasts make no sense at all. There are too many variables at play. The enologists who discuss this are doing anything but sending messages amongst themselves.” Scienza is not contesting the role of scientific data that can be taken from the weather and the modes of harvesting, but rather the fact that, “the data that we have available today could be completely changed within 20 days, therefore it is insane to create plausible scenarios.”
But if communications these days do not occupy themselves with harvest predictions, what news should be offered? The answer is obvious, according to Scienza: “Communications should quit giving only reassuring news to consumers for fear of damaging the market. Reassuring is not synonymous with the truth. In order to reinforce the trust of consumers in a world (that of wine) that is open to transparency, they should, instead, inform them about what is happening to Italian viticulture as a consequence of the climactic changes in act and what the solutions are in this sector and the subjects who are involved in these solutions for such an important sector of the Italian economy as that of viticulture.”