A report has captured the figures for organic wine in our country, which ranks first for the share of organic vineyard area out of the total cultivated. A report has captured the figures for organic wine in our country, which ranks first for the share of organic vineyard area out of the total cultivated.
In 2020, in Italy, 4 out of every 100 bottles of wine were produced using organic methods. And the phenomenon is growing, both in terms of the expansion of vineyard areas and consumer interest, with buyers increasingly attentive to sustainability. This is the picture painted by the report La filiera vitivinicola biologica, part of an educational project on organics promoted by the Ministry of Agricultural Policy and carried out by Ismea.
At the global level, of the 7 million hectares of vineyard area surveyed, 6.7 per cent is cultivated according to organic farming production methods, covering a total area close to 500,000 hectares (+600 per cent over the last 20 years and +114 per cent over the last ten).
In Italy, in 2019, 107,143 hectares of organic vineyard were recorded (+109 per cent over the decade): the country ranks third for organic vineyard area, behind Spain and France, but comes first when considering the overall share of organic vines (nearly 19 per cent) out of the total area. Organic vineyards are distributed across the peninsula as follows: 22.8 per cent of the total in the north, 22.5 per cent in the centre, 25.5 per cent in the south, and 29.2 per cent in the islands. Sicily alone, with just under 30,000 hectares, accounts for around 28 per cent of the total organic vineyard area, followed by Puglia (14 per cent) and Tuscany (14 per cent).
In Italy there are more than 18,000 organic wine growers, while operators across the entire sector number 25,000. The largest consumers of organic wine are Germany, France, the United Kingdom and the United States. In terms of volume, organic wine accounts for 3.5 per cent of all wine consumed worldwide (2 per cent in Italy) — a figure set to grow.
Meanwhile, it is once again time for the harvest: as Coldiretti reports, this year the harvest in southern Italy began a week earlier than in 2020 due to the high temperatures that have accelerated grape ripening, while in the north an average delay of ten days is estimated. This year's Italian production — Coldiretti adds — is estimated to be down 5–10 per cent at national level, with a volume of between 44 and 47 million hectolitres, though much will depend, in the coming weeks, on temperature levels and the frequency of extreme weather events such as cloudbursts and hailstorms, which have a devastating impact on vineyards and on the quantities produced. "In Italy a good-to-excellent quality vintage is nonetheless expected, even if the course of the harvest will be heavily influenced by the rest of August and by September in order to confirm forecasts on the quantitative side as well," Coldiretti explains. Despite the production decline, Italy remains the world's leading wine producer, followed by France and Spain.
According to Coldiretti's analysis, the element that most characterises the new season for Italian wine is, finally, the focus on environmental sustainability, marketing policies and the relationship with consumers (including through social media), with young winemakers driving a turning point in the sector with businesses that are increasingly multifunctional, larger, more profitable and creating more employment.