Lorenzo Gassi, a farmer from Rutigliano (Italy) with about 10 hectares of traditional and seedless varieties, is not exuberant about the 2023 grape season, but he is serene and less worried. He is closing the season more than two months early.
"There was a considerable hoarding of Italian grapes, especially in the last part of the campaign. I sold the last lots in mid-October, while last season, at the end of December, I was still waiting to sell the same varieties to wineries, for reasons we all know. So, the year that has just ended was a year that gave us a chance to clean our wounds and to regain hope and the desire to invest in grapes, for which Apulia holds the national production record. This is more than 60 days of fears and worries that we have been spared, of reduced treatments, of working days for the cleaning of the grapes and the irrigation that we will no longer have to do."
Some lots already pruned
In view of the satisfactory commercial performance, the Apulian grower purchased an additional 2,500 rootstocks. "I decided to increase the number of hectares slightly. This was made easier by the fact that I already had the necessary facilities and equipment for cultivation. I had a part of the land that was not cultivated, in addition to the surface area that housed a plantation until 2022, which has now been uprooted due to the difficult situation that has arisen. But it remains a mystery which variety to plant."
While it is true that starting prices were high compared to the past, it is also true that yields were down this year, mainly due to fungal infections caused by the incessant rains in late spring/early summer. "We didn't close with a loss, but we certainly didn't get rich," the farmer points out, "we just regained the satisfaction of doing our work. Personally, I had a loss of up to 60% in the field, but the same grapes were sold with difficulty in 2022 at 0.60 €/kg. This time, we sold them for 1 €/kg."