Hot temperatures, drought, sunburn and hail threaten the 2023 harvest. "Many adverse conditions are becoming more and more exacerbated" but "the work of the winemaker can improve the quality of the grape harvest". To say it is the oenologist Mario Ronco, who follows many wineries of the Consortium for the protection of Colline del Monferrato Casalese.
"In a general sense, the year started with high quantities of bunches, it being understood that hail and regulation, which quality companies operate, will undoubtedly create differences in production between winemakers", Ronco presses. "On quality, on the other hand, the evaluation must be made company by company according to the cultivation operations adopted, already, starting from last autumn. The climatic trend of the last part of the season will be decisive".
"Although we are now close to harvesting red grapes, everything can still change, while for white grapes we have already started to harvest. The bright days with cool nights at the beginning of August greatly influenced the early grapes, speeding up the early harvest. On Grignolino and Barbera, however, we will see a different trend for the vineyards affected by hail".
However, between now and the harvest, the climate, with its unpredictable action, "can still upset the harvest of red grapes, reserving very different scenarios. The reds, in particular, need cool nights, that is, to be accompanied until the harvest by the temperature ranges that should be typical of this season".
To be anomalous is now the unexpected third heat wave caused by the African anticyclone. "This high pressure, characterized by scorching temperatures over 35 degrees, is accelerating technological maturity (the ratio between the degree of sugars of the grape and that of total fixed acidity), threatening the achievement of phenolic acidity (relative to the concentration of phenolic substances). Its action is more impactful for the varieties closer to ripening".
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