VINITALY NO. 47, VERONA, APRIL 7-10, 2013
EMPSON WILL BE THERE: PAVILION 8 (TUSCANY), BOOTH C1
Following is the 2012 Harvest Report that will be handed out to Empson friends in Verona.
The last you heard about the 2012 harvest from an Empson Newsletter was our Harvest Preview, written on August 30th of last year, in the heat of summer and high hopes of another fine vintage. A mere 15% of Italian crops had been picked at that point so that any definitive statement would have been premature. At the time, we wrote that the I Love 2012 illustration up top was wishful thinking rather than reality and promised: “If all goes well, you’ll see the same picture in our VinItaly Harvest Report next spring.”
We kept our promise and our picture. Today is the very first day of spring 2013 and at last, after a very snowy, cold winter and capricious March rains, Milan has woken to sunny albeit cool weather – what better moment to gather our data and see how the 2012 harvest kept some promises of its own?
You will recall the Preview quoted the Association of Italian Enologists, Assoenologi, in their August 25th Report, when it was forecast that 2012 would be “the second smallest crop since 1950, when 41 million hectoliter were produced”, with a likely total around 41.5 million hectoliters. In their definitive Report of October 19th, 2012, the forecast was not only confirmed but the crop turned out to be even smaller than expected: 39.3 million hectoliters only, meaning 8% less than in 2011, itself well below average in quantity. It’s now official: 2012 was the smallest crop since 1950. Only 1947 was smaller but then Italy was still recuperating from WWII…
We have to point out, however, that comparisons are not totally fair as vineyard surface from 1950 to 1980 was decidedly larger than today: in 1980, it was 1,230,000 hectares, i.e. 3,039,396 acres (we’re obviously leaving out vineyards destined for table grapes). Today, it is only 694,000 hectares – 1,714,911 acres.
Let us now go back to last year: the month of September 2012 turned out to be excellent weather-wise, with adequate rainfall and those cool nights and warm days so instrumental to quality. The latter presented heterogeneous results, with a prevalence of the high end of the spectrum. Needless to say, the Empson portfolio fell into these happy latitudes.
Generally speaking, Italy was split into two, quantity-wise:
North and center, decreases go from -5% in Emilia Romagna – a region that has just joined the Empson portfolio with Lini 910! – to -20% in Lombardy and Tuscany. From the Marches on southwards, figures are either equal to last year, like in Abruzzi, Campania and Sardinia, or smaller – -10% in Apulia, -15% in Latium; or even larger, +15% in Sicily.
The intense heat and scarce rains had the beneficial effect of hampering traditional vine diseases. The flip side of the coin was, vineyards in regions and denominations that do not allow emergency irrigation suffered and crops were much smaller than average. Overall, quality was good with peaks of very good and isolated cases of great. The latter could have been much more numerous if the summer had been a little rainier and cooler. Italy, at any rate, can count her blessings considering the very bizarre weather of 2011/2012, which went from snow to heat wave without a by-your-leave.
Early winter was rather mild, so much so a few areas in northern Italy hit temperatures of 15-16° C (59-60.8° F), whereas January saw a sudden decrease to as low as -20° C (-4° F), notably in Piedmont. In the Adriatic regions, winter was rather rainy, with copious snows, especially in the Marches and Abruzzi. The regions facing the Tyrrhenian Sea, on the other hand, Tuscany in particular, saw little rain – with the exception of Campania, where both rainfall and snows were abundant. The last ten days in March, maximum temperatures in northern and central Italy were as high as over 25° C (77° F), while April returned to colder temperatures; in some areas, as low as around 0° C (32° F) the night of April 9th. In the north, spring featured intense hailstorms that hit vast areas in Lombardy, Veneto, Piedmont and Trentino. The rains in various north-central zones hampered blossoming: fertility was diminished and so was the number of berries per grape bunch. In the southernmost central zones, on the other hand, sunny weather and high temperatures from late April onwards favored excellent growth and regular bunch formation. From May onwards, temperatures increased to as high as 40° C (104° F).
In the northernmost central areas, instead, the heat wave hit in mid- to late June and rains were practically non-existent except at higher altitudes that saw some stormy weather. The drought lasted until early September, when 20% of the grapes had already been picked. This led to a decided decrease in quantity for earlier-ripening varieties, especially white grapes, whereas later-ripening ones and red grapes in general saw quantities closer to normal.
As we said: Italy can count her blessings for in spite of the sweltering summer and record-breaking drought produced by seven successive anticyclones, the harvest was ultimately satisfactory and even excellent in almost all Italian regions, especially for those varieties that enjoyed September’s providential rains.
The month of September, in fact, was the weather’s final peace-offering to the country: it was absolutely perfect, with ideal temperatures, just enough rains and cool nights that led to an ultimately happy harvest.
As for timing, the earliest grapes picked were August 2nd to 8th in Sicily, Apulia and Lombardy. Harvest was in full swing from September 10th to Sept. 20th and closed in late October with the Nebbiolos, the Cabernets, Aglianicos and native varieties on the slopes of Etna.
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