Grape Harvest Expected to Grow 11 Percent in 2004
Staff Writer - July 12, 2004
 The 2004 grape harvest will produce around 49 million hectoliters (about 1,300 million gallons) of wine, according to ISMEA and the Unione Italiana Vini (UIV, or Italian Wine Union) predictions. This would represent an increase of 11 percent compared with 2003.
The 2004 increase represent a partial recovery from the bad harvests of the past few years, which brought Italian wine production to an all-time low of 45 million hectoliters, or fewer than 1,200 million gallons. The tendency affects all the Italian wine regions.
The weather conditions of the last few months, favored the growth of the vines nationally. The frost season passed without damaging the vineyards, while the winter and spring rain generated abundant water reserves, which will be more than enough to face the summer season, especially in the south of the country.
The excessive rain though, lead to Peronospera outbrake in some areas, but are currently under control, report ISMEA and UVI. The worst cases are reported in Apulia, especially in the Salento area. However, this should not affect the quantity of the production, which is expected to grow compared to 2003.
The Peronospera outbrake is under control in Veneto as well, where hail storms hit the Treviso and Vicenza wine zones in June without compromising the overall grape production. In Emilia-Romagna and Marches things are looking good as well and the harvests are expected to be abundant.
In Piedmont, grapes are undergoing mandatory treatments against the Scaphoideus Titanus, and there have been some minor problems involving Uncinula Necator reported exclusively in the Langhe area. Finally, production appears to be very promising in Sicily as well.
This year's harvest is 7 to 10 days behind schedule compared with 2003, when the harvest was abundantly ahead of schedule though. According to ISMEA and UIV, the ongoing heat wave may still speed up the maturation of the grapes.
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