by Eric J. Lyman

ROME, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- For the second consecutive year, warmer-than-average temperatures are moving up the harvest date for grapes used in many Italian wines, forcing some winemakers to rethink the traditional calendar and contemplate changes that will be needed if average temperatures continue to rise.

By some counts, Italy had its smallest wine harvest in 60 years in 2017 -- though because last year's heat wave was felt all across Europe, Italy still managed to wrestle the prize as the world's top wine producer by volume from France.

The smaller-than-usual yields that year stemmed from high temperatures: harvests began on the island regions of Sardinia and Sicily in July for the first time ever. In Tuscany, the main wine growing region in central Italy, the harvest began in late August, three weeks earlier than normal. In Piedmont, in northern Italy, harvests began about two weeks ahead of schedule.

Though the summer of 2018 has been hotter than normal, temperatures are not as extreme as they were a year ago. But according to Marco Rosati, technical director of Tenuta di Trecciano, a mid-sized winemaker in Tuscany, the weakened state of vines after the scorching summer of 2017 has an impact.

"This has been a strange year so far, and compared to 20 years ago it has been very far from normal," Rosati told Xinhua. "But things are made worse in part because grape vines already stressed by last year will suffer more."

This year, harvests are starting earlier than normal though not as early as last year. In Tuscany, white grapes started to be picked after Aug. 20, around two weeks later than last year but two weeks earlier than they would have been picked a generation ago. Winemakers said the red grapes will likely have to be picked a week or two ahead of schedule.

"It's hard to compare things to a 'normal' year because that doesn't exist any longer," Alessio Gorini, an agronomist with Avignonesi, one of Tuscany's most important winemakers, said in an interview. "It can be cold and wet one year, hot and humid another, a drought the next. Unpredictable is what passes for normal these days."

Domenico Bosco, head of the wine section for Coldiretti, Italy's main agriculture industry group, said that a changing climate means winemakers have had to abandon what had been the traditional calendar for weather and harvests. He said that some are even taking steps to confront warm temperatures, like switching to more resilient grape clones, and that some Italian vintners may soon be forced to switch to heat-friendly grape varieties.

"Over time we may see grape varieties that thrived further south move north so they can be in their best habitat," Bosco told Xinhua.

Coldiretti said it expects overall wine grape production in Italy to grow compared to last year's diminished harvest. Forecasts are for at least 46 million hectoliters, compared to a little more than 40 million a year ago. That could be enough to keep Italy ahead of France as the world's top winemaker in terms of volume. Enditem

Related

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)