Historic moment for Italy's wine producers

Italian wine producers and their U.S. importers are celebrating. After a decade, Italy has regained its leadership position as the number one wine producer in the world. For the past ten years France has maintained this position. While final data will be released in late January, the EU Commission estimates that at the conclusion of this year's harvest Italy has experienced an eight percent growth in production, close to 47 million hectolitres of wine. In comparison, wine production in France has decreased by five percent to 44.4 million hectoliters of wine.

With the 2008 harvest just concluding, Giuseppe Martelli, General Director of Assoenologi (The Italian National Association of Enologists), comments that, "Overall 2008 was a mixed year depending on the region. Among white wines, strong harvests prevailed in Trentino Alto-Adige and Friuli-Venezia-Giulia. The predominantly red wine regions of Piedmont and Tuscany also appear to have noteworthy harvests."