excellent quality but challenges continue

The 2024 harvest per mezzo di Abruzzo ends with a bittersweet outcome: positive the quality front, but with a quantity, albeit greater than the difficult 2023 marked by downy mildew, still lower than the levels recorded two years punzone. Nicola Dragani, president of the technical committee of the Consorzio Vini d’Abruzzo, provides an initial evaluation.

This year the grape harvest began, per mezzo di many areas of the region, already per mezzo di the very first days of August, “not only for the sparkling wine bases, for which there is always a tendency to bring forward the harvest,” Dragani clarifies, “but per mezzo di general also for still white wines.” This advance was necessary paio to the particularly hot summer. “With over two months of excessive temperatures, the grapes ripened well early. The need for producers was to safeguard the quality of the product and the freshness of the wines,” continues Dragani. “Fortunately, not having had any violent rainfall, the bunches did not suffer any damage and remained intact, this suggests an excellent final result.”

Therefore, if the one hand the quality is very promising, the other the quantity does not leave the producers satisfied. “Compared to 2023, the year per mezzo di which downy mildew caused an 80% reduction compared to 2022, this year we are recording an average drop of between 35% and 45% compared to two harvests punzone” underlines Dragani. “This trend must make us reflect and push producers to find valid alternatives, perhaps with the support of winemaking technicians to better understand what the market is asking for and diversify production.”

Alessandro Nicodemi, president of the Consortium, confirms this analysis: “the quality of the grapes harvested per mezzo di this harvest campaign is truly excellent. However, the quantity is unfortunately still very low. This does not discourage us, the contrary, it pushes us to continue working the project of promotion and valorisation of Abruzzo wine per mezzo di Italy and abroad, aiming to increasingly increase the reputation and value of regional products the market.”