A complicated harvest

When we will drink 2017 wines we will discover that the quality won't be super and that the wines will be more expensive (if producers will have us pay for the extra work done in the vineyard and the quantity loss), although there will be some positive surprises.

If even Riccardo Cotarella, the president of the national enologists association Assoenologi, recently stated that to speak of an historic harvest would be at least unwise and perhaps even in bad faith, then it should be clear to all that 2017 will not be the umpteenth “harvest of the century”. For sure, in cases like this making generalizations is always wrong. However, in this case one needs to take into consideration that there were widespread frosts in April, above all in low-laying plains and valleys, which were followed almost everywhere by drought to varying degrees of severity. Then came the hail, above all in Lombardy and Veneto. Had there been a locust plague it would have been the Full Monty. While it is not overall and everywhere, optimists are predicting a production decline of 20% over 2016, something no one doubts. Thus this was not a good year. Harvests were anticipated almost everywhere, the grapes were not juicy and in some cases dry and this means that in the absence of water other components will become more concentrated, above all those of sugar and acidity. With red grapes this will affect the rapport between the liquid and solid components with more tannins that often have not reached maturity. One need only think back to many wines from 2003 and other torrid years. These were alcoholic but with hard, green tannins that dried up the mouth and made the wine difficult to drink. More than likely we will see many wines like this from the 2017 harvest, although there will be exceptions. Skilled winegrowers and, above all, talented winemakers will know they will have to limit the period of macerations, for example, and use less wood for maturing the wine. They may also use oxidation to soften the edges of the tannins but this will not be easy. It will be a vintage for authentic winemakers, people who knew how to compensate for the abnormal and extreme weather conditions which in some areas was unprecedented. Knowing how to work the land, for example, is much more efficient than simply irrigating the vineyards but it also involves using more manpower and this drives up costs.  It will also be important to separate the healthy grape bunches from those damaged by hail.  In the end we will have less wine that will be more expensive and perhaps not always of the highest quality, although there will be some positive surprises.

And this because it is in the most difficult years that the best producers shine.

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