The data from Assoenologi/Ismea/U.I.V.
Every year, the state of vineyards nationwide is outlined with wine trends for the current campaign. The survey is a collaboration between Assoenologi, Ismea and Unione Italiana Vini, which combine their respective strengths and expertise.
Harvest 2022: the year of record temperature
Once again this year there has been no lack of unusual and exceptional weather events. For months, drought, accompanied by above-normal temperatures, affected almost all of Italy.
An analysis conducted on average rainfall for the period 1902-2002 confirms the upward trend in Italian temperatures.
The first seven months of the year projected 2022 as the hottest year ever in our country, only the August rains brought temperatures back to normal and brought water levels back to a less critical range.
From a phytosanitary point of view, the condition of the Italian vineyard seems generally excellent, with very rare pathogen attacks, limited and well managed by appropriate field interventions.
Hence, the Italian vineyard has been severely tested by weather and climatic conditions, but the harvest has exceptional characteristics, from which high quality products are also expected.
We must admit that the vine plant has demonstrated, in all its aspects, the great resilience for which it stands out in the environmental landscape. We should also highlight the extraordinary research work to which the winemakers and winegrowers have dedicated themselves, in these years characterized by the vagaries of the climate, without technical conditioning and with great respect for our territories.
Innovations in cultivation operations and vineyard processing and management techniques, accompanied by the great unique Italian ampelographic biodiversity, assure us, worldwide, the uniqueness of our national productions.
The prudent management, which is a guarantee that the final product will be of adequate quality, will also enable us to obtain a quantity that should conform to the average of recent harvests and a quality that will range from good to excellent.
This year the harvest season began in the last decade of July, with grape picking for sparkling wine bases in Sicily, followed by Puglia and Lombardy with Franciacorta and Oltrepo. Between mid-August and the first week of September, harvest operations for early varieties took place in most Italian regions, while the full harvest throughout Italy took place between September and October.
The 2022 harvest
Wine and must production is stable in comparison to 2021, with grape production between 65 million quintals, which then about 50.27 million hectoliters of wine, in line with last year (50.23 million hectoliters of wine – Agea data).
A harvest of good and excellent quality, this is how the grapes of the Italia vineyard look at present, where, from the first preventive analytical analyses of the grapes, medium-high potential gradations are shown. Particular attention is paid to the polyphenolic contents of the red grapes that determine potential expectations of excellence for aging wines.
Climate change increasingly requires careful monitoring by winemakers and oenologists, with particular attention to care and environmental sustainability, elements that are now necessary for proper consumer recognition. This is also accompanied by the great enthusiasm with which each year we face this period for the enhancement of future wines, now the first ambassadors of our territories.
BOX Harvest 2022
Riccardo Cotarella, president of Assoenologi
The month of August was blessed in the sense that without the August weather pattern we would not have had this harvest either in terms of quantity or especially in terms of quality. Fortunately, August was generous compared to the other months of 2022. Except in very rare cases, the 2022 vintage is between good and excellent.
Is there a difference between Italian regions in this harvest?
Today, the climate trend is such that we cannot speak of a difference between regions, but between territories. It is such an extreme climate that a rain, a cool temperature at night is enough to mitigate the nefarious effects of the weather. So it is not correct to say how the season went in Italy, but I can say that some areas suffered, but thanks to the few rains in August, the others went on with great character and will produce really exceptional grapes.
The south is more resilient when faced with a prolonged drought rather than northern Italy, is this true?
Plant resistance is like the human body, it depends on how you take care of it. If you take care of it in the right way, without excess and without defect, then so is the plant. So we will tolerate physical stress if we are healthy, and so is the vine. The important thing is the way the vineyard is raised, in a scientific way, knowing where you put your hands. But there is another important element: the age of the vineyard.
If a vineyard is young it suffers more, because the roots are still on the surface and less in depth. It is a whole system of elements that make wine a unique product: there is no formula for making good wine or good grapes, they are a set of factors and elements that must be reasoned using common sense, humility and awareness.
BOX Harvest 2022
Lamberto Frescobaldi, president of Unione Italiana Vini
The center of Italy will produce about 12 percent more than last year, so it will be a very good production. We will have production in Italy around 50 million hectoliters, which will bring us to be the top producer all over the world, but we should not exult because we don’t care about being the top producer in quantity, but in quality.
What does it means? Having an average price, a gross product that can be sold per hectare so that whoever produces can with peace of mind produce well. This means in some cases remaking vineyards, in some cases looking for areas with a greater vocation. There is so much to do at the production level and then to do at the communication level for Italy.
