THE 2010 VINTAGE WILL BE A VERY GOOD YEAR. EXCELLENT IN PIEDMONT, TRENTINO, EMILIA ROMAGNA AND UMBRIA, SAYS CONFAGRICOLTURA

The 2010 vintage will be a very good year for quality and quantity and a production increase estimated at 2.5% (+4.3% in the North and +0.3% in the South). The estimates come from the Confagricoltura (Italian Confederation of Farmers) “Wine Observatory”, which is monitoring 700 of the most prestigious Italian wine companies representing “Italian vineyards”. Based on these findings, the total production is estimated at 46.5 million hectoliters, equal to the average values of the last ten years.
2010 will be an excellent vintage in terms of quality and quantity, especially for wines from Piedmont and Umbria: +10% in Piedmont and +15% in Umbria. Excellent vintage for the wines of Trentino Alto Adige (quantity remains the same), Emilia Romagna (+2.14% in quantity) good to excellent in Tuscany (+0.2% volume), Lombardy (+2.5%) and Friuli Venezia Giulia (+5%). Good to excellent vintages in southern Italy: Puglia (+3.5%); Sicily (less 2.75%). In Sardinia good, but with a sharp drop in production (-10%), good vintages in Campania and Calabria (+13% for each region). “Vine diseases”, said Confagricoltura, “have been kept to a minimum despite the abundant spring rains that brought powdery and downy mildews in the vineyards. On the whole, the assessment of the vegetation is positive and quality was maintained during the flowering and fruit set period. The climatic changes that could still affect the Italian regions in the second half of August oblige us to be cautious, but both the environmental conditions and the signals picked up in the vineyard allow us to be optimistic about the quality of the new wine”.

Focus - The figures of vintages in Italy (year - thousands of hectoliters) Year 2000 - 54.088
Year 2001 - 52.293
Year 2002 - 44.604
Year 2003 - 44.096
Year 2004 - 53.135
Year 2005 - 50.566
Year 2006 - 49.631
Year 2007 - 42.588
Year 2008 - 46.247
Year 2009 - 45.422
Year 2010 - 46.553 (estimates from Confagricoltura)