While Italy is harvesting, there are 39.6 million hectoliters of wine stored in the cellars

While Italy is in the midst of the grape harvest, especially in the South, as of July 31, 2024, there were 39.6 million hectoliters of wine (-13.1% compared to 2023) and 2.5 million hectoliters of must (-28%), plus 37.087 hectoliters of new wine still fermenting (-16.7%). These data are from the most recent edition of the 8th “Cantina Italia” report in 2024, published a few days ago on the Ministry of Agriculture website. The report was drawn up by the ICQRF (Quality Control and Fraud Repression Inspectorate) based on data from the electronic winery register.
The figure is in line with the production volume of the scarce 2023 harvest. In detail, 59.2% of the wine is stocked in the Northern Regions, mainly in Veneto. 56.9% of the wine stored is PDO, and 24.4% PGI. Varietal wines, instead, account for just 1.5% of the total, while 17.2% are other generic wines. As usual, most of the stocks are Geographical Indication wines. Twenty denominations, out of 529, account for 57.6% of the total stocks. Prosecco DOC alone accounts for 11.6% of all stocks, at 3.7 million hectoliters. Then Apulia TGI (1.4 million hectoliters), Tuscany TGI (1.2 million hectoliters), Salento TGI (1.07), Sicily DOC (994.044 hectoliters), Chianti DOCG (986.303) and Montepulciano d’Abruzzo (954.895 hectoliters).
At the conclusion of last year’s scare harvest, data updated to November 30, 2023, revealed there were 53.1 million hectoliters of wine in stock, plus 8.8 million hectoliters of must as well as 8.4 million hectoliters of new wine still fermenting. On the same date in 2024, considering that this year’s harvest is complicated, but at the moment expected to be definitely more abundant than last year’s, and also a less than brilliant market, the figure could, in all probability, be much higher.