The storied Asti region of northern Italy saw a lush harvest this year, but many winegrowers are leaving some grapes on the vine, choosing to produce less as US and Russian demand drops.
After two difficult years, this year has been a good one and Italy is expected to once again beat rival France as the world’s leading producer.
However, Union of Italian Wine secretary-general Paolo Castelletti said it was not exactly something to celebrate.
Photo: AFP
“There is a decline in wine consumption especially in the main market, North America,” he said. “The market was supported by boomers... now they’re reducing their consumption.”
US President Donald Trump’s new tariffs also make imports more expensive and could push Italian wines above the “psychological threshold” of US$20 a bottle, he said.
That hit comes on the back of a decline in demand in Russia, where Asti wines were particularly popular, since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
About 17 million bottles were sold there in 2023, falling to 12 million last year, with this year’s sales expected at 10 million.
In total, export demand for Italian wines slowed by four percent in the first five months of this year.
Some vineyards in France have decided to uproot vines to adapt, and the European Commission is pushing in this direction. However, Castelletti said this should be a “last resort” and supports leaving grapes on the vine, or blocking authorization for new plantings.
Leaving grapes is what some winegrowers are doing in Asti to produce less sparking white.
They plan to reduce production of white muscat from 10 to nine tonnes per hectare of vines this year.
At his Ca’ dei Mandorli, or House of Almond Trees estate, an expanse of seemingly endless vineyards, Stefano Ricagno assessed his first juices as Indian harvesters made the final cuts on the vines.
They are leaving some grapes, but the summer heat has reduced production anyway.
“We thought we’d produce a lot, but it was very hot. The muscat harvest is almost in line with our [lowered] targets,” Ricagno said.
Asti made a name for itself with low-alcohol golden sparkling wines, generally around 7 percent for “Asti” and 5 percent for “Moscato,” almost all of which are sold in the US.
Sales of “Asti” fell from 100 million bottles in 2023 to 90 million last year, and are expected to fall to 85 million this year, and winegrowers are seeing their inventories increase.
“We’ll see in 2026 if the wars end and the markets recover,” Ricagno said.
Other Italian appellations, such as Valpolicella in Veneto, have also reduced volumes this year, because of market uncertainties.
However, some want nothing to do with quotas or appellations.
In Nizza Monferrato, Francesco Pozzobon has taken over abandoned vines and is letting them grow without pesticides, sowing clover and broad beans between the rows.
“We’ve overproduced and underproduced,” Pozzobon said. “With the drop in demand, there will be a natural skimming.”
The yield at his Tenuta Foresto is much more irregular and lower than that of his neighbors, at 3 tonnes per hectare, but he commands high prices for his “artisanal” wines, even as far away as China.
‘TERRORIST ATTACK’: The convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri resulted in the ‘martyrdom of five of our armed forces,’ the Presidential Leadership Council said A blast targeting the convoy of a Saudi Arabian-backed armed group killed five in Yemen’s southern city of Aden and injured the commander of the government-allied unit, officials said on Wednesday. “The treacherous terrorist attack targeting the convoy of Brigadier General Hamdi Shukri, commander of the Second Giants Brigade, resulted in the martyrdom of five of our armed forces heroes and the injury of three others,” Yemen’s Saudi Arabia-backed Presidential Leadership Council said in a statement published by Yemeni news agency Saba. A security source told reporters that a car bomb on the side of the road in the Ja’awla area in
‘SHOCK TACTIC’: The dismissal of Yang mirrors past cases such as Jang Song-thaek, Kim’s uncle, who was executed after being accused of plotting to overthrow his nephew North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has fired his vice premier, compared him to a goat and railed against “incompetent” officials, state media reported yesterday, in a rare and very public broadside against apparatchiks at the opening of a critical factory. Vice Premier Yang Sung-ho was sacked “on the spot,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency said, in a speech in which Kim attacked “irresponsible, rude and incompetent leading officials.” “Please, comrade vice premier, resign by yourself when you can do it on your own before it is too late,” Kim reportedly said. “He is ineligible for an important duty. Put simply, it was
SCAM CLAMPDOWN: About 130 South Korean scam suspects have been sent home since October last year, and 60 more are still waiting for repatriation Dozens of South Koreans allegedly involved in online scams in Cambodia were yesterday returned to South Korea to face investigations in what was the largest group repatriation of Korean criminal suspects from abroad. The 73 South Korean suspects allegedly scammed fellow Koreans out of 48.6 billion won (US$33 million), South Korea said. Upon arrival in South Korea’s Incheon International Airport aboard a chartered plane, the suspects — 65 men and eight women — were sent to police stations. Local TV footage showed the suspects, in handcuffs and wearing masks, being escorted by police officers and boarding buses. They were among about 260 South
A former flight attendant for a Canadian airline posed as a commercial pilot and as a current flight attendant to obtain hundreds of free flights from US airlines, authorities said on Tuesday. Dallas Pokornik, 33, of Toronto, was arrested in Panama after being indicted on wire fraud charges in US federal court in Hawaii in October last year. He pleaded not guilty on Tuesday following his extradition to the US. Pokornik was a flight attendant for a Toronto-based airline from 2017 to 2019, then used fake employee identification from that carrier to obtain tickets reserved for pilots and flight attendants on three other
RSS