The 2025 harvest will be excellent, but with uncertainty over quantity: Tuscany cuts volumes, Veneto produces more

There are many Italian territories where, in this 2025 vintage, harvest forecasts range from excellent to outstanding in terms of quality. Starting with Sicily, in strong recovery (according to the Assovini analysis), through to Valle d’Aosta, passing through Tuscany and Lombardy (especially in Franciacorta) and down to Puglia, the analysis of bunches and grapes now arriving at Italian wineries (pending the official report from Assoenologi together with Ismea and Uiv on 10 September) suggests a vintage better than last year’s.

The uncertainty, however, remains the quantity produced. Numerous agricultural associations had already made this clear last July and reiterated it at the interministerial table of 4 August at Palazzo Chigi, attended by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni: overproduction is forbidden. Because it would risk serious repercussions on prices and the balance sheets of Italian wine companies, at a time when the market, both domestic consumption and exports (also in the first half of the year), certainly does not show exciting data or prospects.

Falling volumes in Tuscany

Therefore, many Consortia have adopted important countermeasures in the vineyard. And the first outcome of this strategy is, for example, in the Chianti Docg estimates for the current vintage. The Consortium, chaired by Giovanni Busi, in the face of a positive phytosanitary picture but also of stocks “higher than last year”, foresees a cut in 2025 volumes of between 10% and 15%. “Not a contingent fact,” clarified the president, “but a precise choice, shared with producers, to guarantee greater quality and give Chianti more strength in the markets.”
For the whole of Tuscany, production estimated for 2025 is about 2.4 million hectolitres of wine, down from 2.7 million in 2024, but still in line with medium-term prospects and with an increase in the share of organic wine, which represents 13–15% of the regional total (+10% in one year).

100,000 tonnes more grapes in Veneto

Veneto, Italy’s leading wine-producing region, thanks above all to Prosecco Doc and Pinot Grigio Doc delle Venezie, seems to be going, surprisingly, against the trend compared to market needs. If the grapes are in “excellent condition” and the health situation “under control” with a harvest that “looks set to be among the best of recent years”, as highlighted at the recent meeting organised by Veneto Agricoltura, the quantities are surprisingly expected to increase. Forecasting data from Crea indicate 100,000 tonnes more grapes compared to 2024, when 1,374,400 tonnes were produced. Damage from downy mildew was more contained and losses from hail were almost equivalent to those of 2024. In addition, summer weather did not have a negative impact. The most renowned grape varieties (Glera, Garganega, Corvina Veronese) are in “optimal condition and, on the production yield front, all appear, on average, to be slightly increasing.”

Excellent quality for Asti Docg but tariffs are a concern

The vintage also looks excellent for white Moscato grapes, according to the forecasts of the Asti Docg Consortium. In the 10,000 hectares of the Piedmont denomination, harvesting is under way and the grapes are in positive health condition, with good acidity retention as well as sugar and aromatic profiles. The reduction of yields decided by the protection body, from 100 to 90 quintals per hectare, of which 5 destined for storage, will lead to a contained production. A choice dictated also by the uncertainty of the 15% US tariffs on wine. President Stefano Ricagno speaks of the premises for an excellent harvest and of “US tariffs which, instead, risk weighing like a boulder on Asti Docg. For sparkling wine, which is already suffering from the collapse of orders from Russia, and for Moscato d’Asti, where the type is at home and represents 60% of exports to the USA.” For Ricagno, production containment is not enough, but rather “institutional support is needed.”

Optimism in Alto Adige, Valle d’Aosta and Primitivo di Manduria

Harvesting began in the last days of August in Alto Adige, where the quality of the grapes is described as very high, thanks to bunches with a “magnificent” appearance, as explained in an official note by the Consortium chaired by Andreas Kofler. In Valle d’Aosta too, the beginning of harvesting (earlier than average) looks set to be “generous and of great qualitative interest.” The grapes harvested appear “healthy, beautiful and full of potential.” On the opposite side, in Puglia, the Primitivo di Manduria Protection Consortium speaks of a harvest “excellent from a qualitative point of view,” says president Novella Pastorelli, emphasising that there are “all the conditions to obtain full-bodied wines, rich in colour and structure, with the typical bouquet of Primitivo di Manduria Dop.”