The 2007 vintage less in quantity but greater quality by Daniela Mosena

As in the past, we are publishing definitive data concerning production in 2007 that was elaborated in cooperation with the Italian Association of Enologists and Enotechnicians (Assoenologi), the national organization of technicians in the wine sector. The data are the result of the elaboration of thousands of samples carried out through different sources. The base is provided by valuations made at the local level of our 17 peripheral offices. The said data are compared with a myriad of other bits of information obtained in an independent way by the Assoenologi's central offices. It is therefore the computer that standardizes, rationalizes and provides the necessary crosscutting controls for verification.
For years, this system has enabled the Associazione Enologi Enotecnici Italiani to formulate, from August to October, forecasts concerning production in the countryside when the harvest is under way. The method was followed in an objective and truthful way so that the findings were confirmed by the National Institute of Statistics (Istat) with only marginal differences. Further confirmation is provided by the fact that the difference between Assoenologi's data and Istat's is only 1.5 percentage points (multi-year average). At the end, there is an interview with Giuseppe Martelli, general director of the AEEI.

Quantity shrinks, while quality rises

On the basis of a three-year (2004-2006) average, world wine production has been calculated at about 300 million hectoliters (7.89 million gallons), of which 170 million hectoliters are produced in the European Union countries. However, they produce slightly less than 60% of world wine output. Seventeen per cent of world production and 30% of that of the European Community "still speak Italian" because the average of Italian production varies widely, depending upon the period under consideration. Output amounted to 61.7 million hectoliters in the 10-year period 1987/1996. But production fell to 51.4 million hectoliters in the period 1997/2006 or 48.4 million hectoliters on the basis of output in the last five years.The grape-growing surface has shrunk in parallel with production. Vines were growing on 1.23 million hectares (3.04 million acres) in 1980. The number declined to 970.000 in 1990. The vine-growing area today is 792,000 hectares. In the last 15 years, the vineyard area shrank by 178,000 hectares, which is only slightly less than the grape-growing area today of Piedmont and Sicily together.
Is that a worrying datum? From one standpoint, yes, for Italians are tearing up vineyards while others are planting vines and seizing market share. On the other hand, no, because Italian viticulture is specialized. It has eliminated the superfluous to the advantage of a notable and recognized improvement in quality.

Twenty years of evolution

In 20 years Italian wine has gone from "food" to "hedonistic product" For 10 years, or up until 2002, Italian exports have grown without interruption, reaching primary positions in many markets.
In 2001, bottled wine surpassed sales abroad of wine in bulk. In 2002 the United States became the leading market for Italian wines. In 2003 the wine sector seized first place in the agriculture-food processing segment, in the sense that for every 100 euros of exports 20 are due to products derived from the vineyard. Currently, the wine sector accounts on average for 40% of Italian agricultural exports to Canada, the United States and Japan.
2003: exportsmark timeDespite excellent performances with the 2003, Italian exports "marked time." With the exception of wines sold in Spain and Russia, sales of which rose by 29% and 54%, respectively, Britain and Switzerland, which registered 2% increases, and the United States, Canada and Eastern European, where sales remained at the 2002 levels, all the other markets suffered declines.
In short, Italian exports registered a decline in volumes in 2003 of 16%, of which 80% was due to bulk wines.

2004 and 2005: exports resume growth

In 2004 the recovery began and, in 2005, Italy made good all the ground it had lost. The effort expended was not wasted. Data for 2004 indicated recuperation of 5% in value and 6% in volume with a trend toward further growth. Results in 2005 confirmed that tendency, for exports climbed by 10% in volume and 3.1% in value, in comparison with the same period of the preceding year. Different from the past, however, the growth trend was not generalized but diverse in that there were estates with the "wind in their sails" and others plunged in the "deepest red ink," which means that some wines scored hits, while others found few buyers.
However, one thing is certain. Until yesterday, it was the producer who shaped choices. Today, it is increasingly the market that orients selection on the basis of the price/quality ratio of wines of a medium level and price/quality/image for a high-level product.

2006 and 2007: exports take off

While domestic consumption continued to decline (according to Assoenologi, per capita consumption now amounts to 49 liters (12.9 gallons annually as compared with more than 100 in the seventies), exports took off once more, although with some highs and some lows.
The year 2006 ended firmly in the black with an increase in wine exports of 11.5% in value and 5.8% in volume. Exports amounted to 18 million hectoliters or 1.9% more than in 2005. And, in the initial months of 2007, a further substantial increase took shape. Exports rose by 14.5% in volume and 11.4% in value in comparison with the same period of 2006. According to Assoenologi, it is difficult to believe that there will be a substantial increase in domestic consumption, since in the next few years, development will depend on the sector's capacity to identify and conquer greater segments of foreign markets.

2007 Vintage: definitive data of the Italian Assoenologi

Summing up quantity
The harvest was the scarcest of the last 60 years. Production amounted to about 40.5 million hectoliters, which represented a decrease of more that 18% in comparison with the preceding vintage, which totaled 49,631,000 hectoliters. The 2007 vintage will be remembered in the north as one of the earliest of the last 70 years. In some zones, harvesting began in the first decade of August, which was 10 to 20 days ahead of the multi-year average. The decline was greatest in southern Italy.

Summing up quality
The bizarre climatic conditions that characterized the entire growing cycle resulted, among highs and lows, in pronounced variations in quality but altogether relatively interesting wines for the precocious varieties. For the grapes harvested after mid-September, the levels were excellent with varying points of excellence. However, central Italy was privileged in comparison with the south, where a humid spring and a hot summer often blocked achievement of the desired performance. In the north, the reds were at their top level with excellent aromas and an exuberant cargo of soft tannins due to the outstanding phenolic maturity. In the south, winery reports indicated that the wines obtained from grapes that were adequately protected from parasites and had not suffered negative physiological effects due to drought or high temperatures offered interesting parameters.

"We are confronting an extremely precocious vintage," said Giuseppe Martelli, general director of the Associazione Enologi Enotecnici Italiani, who explained that "with the exception of the 2003 harvest, it is hard to find a comparable reduction in output in the last 70 years. That was because of climatic and meteorological conditions. Winter 2006-2007 was among the mildest and least rainy of recent decades. But April suffered its worst heat wave of the last 50 years, while July produced the sultriest weather of the last five years, especially in the center and south. Torrid temperatures were recorded in the south and in the mid-north, where scattered precipitation was beneficial for the vines. Those situations led to a segmentation of production in terms of quality and quantity that, despite its heterogeneity, was offset by a certain territorial uniformity. In the north of the country, production was of great interest qualitatively but output was down by 15-20% in the eastern regions (Piedmont and Lombardy). The Veneto and Friuli Venezia Giulia registered increases in production of more than 5 to 10%, again in comparison with 2006. In Emilia-Romagna and farther south output declined, with the shrinkage growing as the investigator descends the peninsula. Another unusual characteristic is the decline of 10-20% registered along the Tyrrhenian Sea. Along the Adriatic, the reduction amounted to more than 30%. On Sicily the situation was completely different. There, the overall decline amounted to 40% with peaks of as much as 55% in some zones of the province of Trapani. The drop in production was more contained on Sardinia where climatic and meteorological conditions at the end of August and in early September led to a decline of 15%.

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