In the first months of this year the Consortium of Doc Sicilia has seen some excellent trends for its wines and believes that the 2021 harvest will be the best in recent years.
“In Sicily, the ferocious heat does not stop the harvest which began in these days in western Sicily and will continue in the coming weeks in central-southern and eastern Sicily. It remains to be understood how much the heat will affect but the forecasts are still very positive”.
The harvest that has just begun promises to be one of the best ever: according to experts it will be an exceptional year for white wines and probably also for reds, if the weather doesn’t play tricks on it. This year the particular climatic conditions have favored the growth of grapes with extraordinary organoleptic properties and in truly generous quantities, especially compared to 2020. “Up to now it has been the ideal vintage, we have had a long, cold and quite rainy winter, which allowed the vines an excellent rest. The mild temperatures and the few spring rains cooled the soils, allowed a good water accumulation for the plants and did not cause phytoiatric problems“. This year is expected to exceed the previous year by about 10-15% in volume.
In these first months of 2021, the data on bottling and exports have been really encouraging. The bottles produced in this period amounted to over 50 million, thus marking an 8% increase in terms of bottling. “In the first half of 2021 the hectoliters bottled in Etna Doc were 18 693 with a growth of 19% compared to the same period of 2020“. There were also excellent values for exports, especially for white wines: these saw an increase of +45% compared to 2020, while the reds marked a +10%.
Here are some data relating to the 2020 vintage. “The official numbers of the 2020 vintage confirm a production of 4.46 million hectoliters, on average with the last 5 years but with a -11.3% compared to the average of the last 10 years. Grillo and Catarratto are the varieties that in 2020 recorded the best production and quality performances, with an average production of 110 quintals per hectare“.
The full article from Il Sole 24 Ore is available here.