The delle Venezie 2021 harvest has now closed across the entire appellation, promising low yields but excellent quality of Pinot Grigio.
As the 2021 harvest draws to a close, consumers can expect overall production drops of 5-15% but impressive quality throughout the region, reveals Consorzio DOC delle Venezie.
This year marks the fifth production season since the region became a DOC and despite the drop in yields produced by the 2021 harvest, which finished across the board by the end of September, an excellent phytosanitary grape condition and exceptional quality has been observed throughout the area.
Producers battled April frosts, high summer temperatures, and water stress, but remarkably these climatic events did not affect the health or the quality of the Pinot Grigio.
“Compared to 2020, we expect a fresher, more elegant and well-structured Pinot Grigio, which already from the last samples taken at the end of August, showed a perfect sugar/acid balance. In terms of grape quality, 2021 is a vintage equal to, if not better than 2015”, said Dr. Diego Tomasi of the Viticulture and Oenology Research Centre in Conegliano.
This trend was confirmed by Rodolfo Rizzi, president of Assoenologi Friuli Venezia Giulia, who described producers having to intervene with emergency irrigation due to drought and hot temperatures, but which “led to the ripening of an excellent grape, with an above average, perfect chemical balance.”
There has also been a notable leap in grape price in the DOC, with the region seeing a 30-35% increase. This is partly due to a drop in supply, but is also thanks to successful measures put in place concerning yield mitigation and administrative storage.
“We are currently witnessing an increase in the price of grapes of 30-35%, which demonstrates how our DOC is achieving, year after year, its deserved value and accreditation,” said the president of the Protection Consortium Albino Armani. “The market does not always easily understand price increases like these. We trust in the support of crucial partners for the growth of our DOC, which in turn believe in our work to protect a climate of commercial serenity.”
