Italian wineries hold almost 40 million hectolitres of wine. The risks with the new vintage approaching

Sep 4 2025, 13:10

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While awaiting the data from the new harvest forecasts, the year closes with a difficult balance, especially for red PDO wines, which now account for almost one third of all wine in storage

Still volumes equal to an entire harvest in Italian wineries, at the conclusion of the 2024/2025 wine year and one week before the release of the new harvest forecasts for 2025/26 by Ismea, Assoenologi and the Italian Wine Union. While the new harvesting phase is entering its peak, and after a 2024 that exceeded expectations (with almost 44 million hectolitres of wine produced), the stock figure as of 31 July 2025, published by Icqrf in the latest Cantina Italia report, stands at 39.79 million hectolitres of wine, to which must be added 2.3 million hectolitres of musts, for a total volume of more than 42 million hectolitres. The wine figure, in particular, is up 0.5% compared to a year ago, while musts show a decline of 8.5%.

PDO reds under greater strain

In detail, Italy shows a slight decline in volumes of PDO wines (22.38 mln/hl and -0.6%), thanks above all to whites, whose stocks fell by 3.8% year on year, against increases for rosés (+2.8%) and for reds (+1.8%), which rose to 12.25 million hectolitres, representing almost 31% of all Italian wine in stock. Also on the rise are PGI wines (10 mln/hl and +3.7%), due to double-digit growth in white varieties (+15.8%) and rosés (+9.7%) compared with -2.6% for reds. Table wines also show a slight decrease: -0.6% to 6.75 million hectolitres.
Compared with June 2025, according to Icqrf data, Italian wine stocks recorded a decrease of 8.8% across all wines, with the largest drop for PGI types (-10.4%) and table wines (-9.6%), while PDO wines recorded -7.9%, and PDO reds showed the lowest decline in stocks (-4.5%). Another indirect signal of the difficulties of this specific category (as already highlighted last year), caught between new consumption styles and slowing exports, particularly to the USA, the main destination market.

Regions and the ranking of PDOs and PGIs

Veneto (10 mln/hl), Tuscany (5.4), Piedmont (3.8), Emilia Romagna (3.76), Puglia (3.72), Lombardy (2), Sicily (2) and Abruzzo (1.8) are the regions where the largest quantities of wine are held in stock. Treviso, Verona, Cuneo, Siena, Florence, Chieti and Trento are the provinces with the highest volumes in storage. Looking at the types, the largest shares among PDO and PGI wines are reserved for Prosecco Doc (3.2 mln/hl), PGI Toscana (1.54), PGI Puglia (1.38), PDO Chianti (1.2), PDO Montepulciano d’Abruzzo (0.98), PGI Veneto (0.97), PGI Salento (0.89), PDO Sicily (0.88 million hectolitres).