This year's wine harvest looks promising in terms of both quality and quantity, according to Lamberto Vallarino Gancia, whose family is famous for its sparking spumante wine.
"The grapes are healthy, of good quality and the quantity will be higher than last year," the head of Italy's fifth-biggest vineyard for turnover said.
"The climate, with a hot and fairly dry spring, allowed for early maturity in several areas of Italy where we harvest our grapes: Piedmont, Veneto and Sicily", he explained.
Grapes used for making sparkling wines have already begun to be harvested ahead of those for white wines and then the reds, he added.
According to Gancia, the thinning of vines in July helped contribute to what would appear to be an excellent and abundant year for red wines.
Gancia's rosy forecast was confirmed by another leading Italian wine producer, Marchesi de' Frescobaldi, who has also begun to harvest grapes.
"The sun in September, the high pressure system and the right temperatures have produced healthy grapes of excellent quality," observed Lamberto Fresobaldi, head of production at
the family vineyard.
"The light rains in Tuscany this August came at the right time. The harvest outlook is positive for all our vineyards," he added.
