The bizarre climate that characterized a mild winter and a cold and rainy summer caused the early start of the Italian harvest. The harvest of the grapes among the Franciacorta vines is underway, which will be followed by all the harvests of the other Italian vineyards. It will be difficult to replicate last year's extraordinarily rich result, when a production of 49 million hectoliters of wine is reached, and the motivation is always attributable to the anomalous climate of an early autumn.
Coldiretti provides an estimate for the current year which sees a production in line with the results of the last five years, ie equal to 46,7 million hectoliters. The Made in Italy in the glasses, net of radical upheavals, will produce Doc wines for 40% (332 qualities), 73 Docg wines and 118 Itg, while the remaining 30% will be destined for the simplest table wines.
The Department of the Central Inspectorate for the protection of quality and the repression of agro-food products fraud (ICQRF), has already begun a few weeks ago to supervise the correctness of the grape harvesting processes. The 400 ICQRF inspectors sent by the Ministry of Agricultural Policies are therefore at work to prevent counterfeiting which could cause wines to arrive on Italian tables that have undergone processes of introduction of altering substances, such as sugary ones, selling pomace and lees as quality wines various.
Quality will be the spearhead of this 2014 collection, which, not being able to focus on last year's large volumes, pays attention to the care of the rows. The damaged bunches will in fact be removed, for the benefit of the rest of the grapes which will not be affected and will remain perfect for the production of high quality wines. The challenge, as always, is with our cousins from across the Alps, with whom we will compete again in 2014 for the primacy of world production.
The occasion of the grape harvest continues to be an important item among job offers in the area, especially among casual jobs. The introduction of payment through vouchers, in fact, encourages all those categories of people who make the grape harvest a fixed appointment at the end of summer. Students, layoffs and pensioners take advantage of the possibility of a job paid around 10 euros gross per hour to supplement the living earnings of university students or workers in difficulty.
