RAINY ITALIAN SUMMER . . . BAD NEWS FOR WINES

ITALY’S WINE production may slide about 14 percent this year after a rainy summer brought overcast conditions and fungal rot, according to a forecast from the country’s association of wine-industry technicians. Italian winemakers may produce 41.6 million hectoliters (1.1 billion gallons) this year, down from 48.16 million hectoliters last year, the Associazione Enologi Enotecnici Italiani reported. The drop would mean France overtakes Spain and Italy as the world’s biggest wine maker, based on government production statistics. Volumes are predicted to slide in 12 out of Italy’s 15 production regions, including Piedmont, home to the Barolo and Barbaresco wines, the association estimates.

Italy’s average rainfall in July was 73 percent above the long-term average, with 22 rainy days in the north of the country. Parts of mainland Italy and Sardinia got twice to four times normal rain in July, it said. The wet conditions were optimal for development of fungal disease such as mildew and botrytis, forcing growers to make a grape selection in the vineyard. Production in Veneto, Italy’s biggest wine-growing region and known for its Valpolicella reds, is forecast to decline 15 percent to 7.78 million hectoliters. Output in Emilia-Romagna, which produces Lambrusco, is forecast to fall 1O percent to 6.66 million hectoliters. Volume in Piedmont is predicted to fall about 1O percent to 2.33 million hectoliters. Tuscany is one of the regions in which production is expected to rise, climbing to 2.7 million hectoliters. Sicily is expected to show the biggest slide in wine volume, falling 3O percent to 5.1 million hectoliters. In Puglia in the south, production is seen slumping 2O percent to 4.73 million hectoliters. Italy’s misfortune contrasts with France, where production is forecast to climb 11 percent to 46.93 million hectoliters as harvests in the Bordeaux region rebound from the smallest volume in more than two decades, government estimates show. Spain’s Agriculture Ministry has forecast wine and must production will slide to 39.44 million hectoliters from last year’s record 53.55 million hectoliters.