Vintners across Italy are rushing into one of the earliest harvests in recent memory to save their grapes from drying up in this summer's exceptional heat wave.

Pickers load a tractor with just harvested Sangiovese grapes, used to make Italy's most famous red wine, Brunello di Montalcino, in Sant'Angelo in Colle, near Montalcino, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) south of Siena, central Italy, in this Aug 30, 2000 file photo.  [AP]

Italian meteorologists have described this summer as the nation's hottest in more than 50 years. But experts say the dry spell hasn't excessively hurt the grapes, and their early maturation is hardly bad news for vintners.

The heat has banished mold and parasites from the vines and thickened the grapes' skin, which gives wine its aromas and raises its sugar and alcoholic content, said Luigi Mainetti an official at Coldiretti, an Italian farmers' association.

If the weather turns out just right, wines such as Chianti, Barolo and Brunello di Montalcino, often the jewels of Italian and foreign cellars, will produce an especially good vintage, Mainetti said.

"Such an early harvest promises a vintage of excellent quality," Mainetti said.

Coldiretti expects wine production to be around 1.3 billion gallons for the 2003 harvest, higher than the historic low of 1.08 billion gallons in 2002.

"It's hard to talk about prices now, but they should remain stable," Mainetti said.

Alfonso Iannielli, a winemaker in the hills of Avio, in the northeast, said he has already started gathering his Chardonnay and Pinot grapes.

"Normally in this period we close down and go on holiday, but we've had to give that up," he said in a telephone interview. "Still there are some good sides to it. For instance, right now the children are not in school and they can take part in the harvest. This way it can be done all in the family, like it used to be."

As the time for harvest shifts from the cool autumn months to the heat of summer some traditions have had to adapt.

In Sicily, where stifling temperatures and early harvest are less of a surprise, some vintners switched to night-harvesting a few years ago, and the new tradition is lending itself well to this particularly sizzling summer.

Pino Giaccone, who has been tending vines in the Sicilian town of Donnafugata for 30 years, is among those who have chosen to work at night, to take advantage of the cooler air and to better preserve the quality of the grapes.

"It's the same grapes we could have collected in daytime but at the same time they are different — the aroma, the taste — it changes everything," he said.

The early harvests are even feeding a new kind of tourism.

"We converge on the fields by candlelight, 3,000, 4,000 people, it's like going to a rock concert," Giaccone said.

Tractors' lights are used to illuminate the vineyards, but the actual harvesting is by hand.

But the wine season has just begun and the grapes for some of the more heavy-bodied reds will be staying on their vines until October.

"For the other grapes, we are in the hands of God," said Mainetti. "We need just a little rain, not a lot, no calamities, just a little rain."

Close

Today's Top News		Top International News
+China outlines position in six-party talks ( 2003-08-27) +Forex enquiry to curb illegal capital inflows ( 2003-08-27) +Women pay life price of human smuggling ( 2003-08-27) +China relaxes trading rights controls ( 2003-08-27) +Star-gazers prepare for Mars close-up ( 2003-08-27)		+Heat prompts early grape harvest in Italy ( 2003-08-27) +UN Security Council approves resolution to protect UN staff ( 2003-08-27) +Canada bans passport smiles ( 2003-08-27) +UN finds uranium at Iran nuclear plant ( 2003-08-27) +Bush vows no retreat over Iraq, US soldier killed ( 2003-08-27)