This month I would like to mention Marcus Tullius Cicero - a famous politician
and philosopher of Ancient Rome - and one of his most famous quotes. For the
sake of truth, the quote is Mala tempora currunt sed peiora parantur,
that is bad times are upon us but the worst has yet to come. I wanted to
omit the final part in order to be wisely optimistic while trusting - of course
- the future will not however be that bad. Or, at least, this is what I
want to wish us, because - I am sure of this - things will not be that bad for
everyone. As we are talking about wine which, commercially speaking, in recent
times it is not having a good fate as there are many wineries having a huge
number of bottles still unsold and which will be forced to put them on sale, I
guess it is better to think positive. Only for this reason, bad times are
upon us and this is true for producers for sure who do not certainly need new
accidents for which it is required to find a solution. On this regard,
it is wished they could use this time for making better grapes and wines.
The title is referred to the meteorological conditions of 2014 which in Italy
have certainly not helped the fate of grapes in vineyards. Rain, heavy rains, a
summer very rich in water, something not happening since a lot of years. Such
an atypical season has been cause of many troubles, not only for the ones
making wine and cultivate vines, but - generally speaking - to all the food and
agriculture production. By traveling in Italy, it was not so difficult - this
year - to see vineyards heavily damaged by the effects of downy mildew and
powdery mildew, as well as devastated fields of wheat, fruits and olives in
remarkable delay of ripeness: the situation is considered at risk for many.
Heavy rains and the lack of sunshine, have caused a significant delay in fruit
ripeness - including grape - and it is believed harvesting will be postponed of
about two weeks. Fifteen days may be considered not so much, indeed they
represent a remarkable risk. 2014 will therefore be a bad vintage, enologically
speaking? Of course, no. Not only for the fact wines of this vintage do not
exist yet - therefore it would make no sense to say anything about them - as
well as for the fact not all the Italian regions had this particularly bad
season.
As fall is coming - and, maybe, by watching what we had in summer, it arrived
with many weeks in advance - things in vineyards of certain regions could get
even worse. Grape needs to complete its ripeness cycle, however without
sunshine this process is pretty difficult. Moreover, the chance of rains will
increase - and a lot - the risk of mold. A plague which would cause further
damages and added to those already caused by downy mildew and powdery mildew,
with the result of compromising harvesting even more. Harvesting that, it is
very likely, could give grapes with pretty modest quantity of sugar, therefore
making wines with low quantity of alcohol and a pretty high crispness.
This is related, of course, to sound grapes which will be possible to harvest.
In this not properly positive scenario, many producers have however said the
grape they will be successful in saving is of good quality.
There are producers - like to say - who have raised a white flag already, on
the contrary, others are even happy for what they harvested in their vineyards,
such us Sicilian vintners. There are some who will not be successful in
harvesting any grape bunch and others who have said there will not be any 2014
vintage for what they consider to be their best wines or however the most
significant ones. This could be considered as an act of honesty and respect
towards their clients and - indeed - it is, also in order to safeguard their
good name and the quality of certain wines. The ones who will not be successful
in harvesting significant grapes - both in quality and quantity terms - will
certainly have to find a good solution in order to not compromise the profit
for 2014. The easiest solution is to buy grapes from the ones who have some of
acceptable quality and wish to sell it. Not to mention, it is not so
difficult to understand there will be a sort of speculation of prices because
of the high demand. Mors tua, vita mea. (Your death, my life)
On the other hand, the lower temperature - that in certain areas of Italy has
never been significantly high - will let grapes to keep certain aromatic
characteristics. We will therefore have less alcoholic wines, however more
acidic and with good aromas. Like to say, every cloud has a silver lining or,
better to say, it is always wise to be happy with what you get. In case we want
to be bad, we could also say the lack of sugar in grapes can be corrected
by adding concentrated must and the excessive acidity can be lowered by simply
using legal and licit methods. However, it should be noticed these methods are
not used in bad vintages only: they simply represent some possibilities they
have in order to correct a wine when needed. In some countries, for example,
the lack of sugar can be corrected - and legally - by adding sucrose, the
common table sugar, something being notoriously forbidden in Italy.
The situation must not however be considered tragic, nevertheless, let's
wait until 2014 wines will be poured in glasses before shedding useless tears.
Preliminary figures say in Italy we will have a decrease in grape harvesting of
about 15%. As a matter of fact, it was since 1950 we did not have such a poor
harvesting in Italy and this will yield - according to figures - a production
of about 41 millions hectoliters of wine. For the ones loving the endless,
although useless, challenge Italy versus France, our country will lose the
first rank in the world about wine production and will pass that to France,
where it is believed wine production will be of 47 millions hectoliters.
Mala tempora currunt: the ones loving this challenge will be sorry to
hear that. Central Italy seems to be the only area in Italy where things seems
to be better and, they say, it will be even capable of increasing harvesting of
10% more than 2013. No matter how things will be, it will be a successful
harvesting, nevertheless for the fact vintners of our country - despite the
heavy rains, hails and bad weather - will be capable of giving us great wines.
I am sure of this and Marcus Tullius Cicero will not be sorry if I dared to
change his quote: mala tempora currunt sed meliora parantur. Bad times
are upon us but the best has yet to come. At least in wineries and in glasses:
time - I am sure about this - will give us remarkable satisfactions even in
this bizarre 2014. Ad maiora! (Towards greater things!)
Antonello Biancalana
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