Piemonte
Italy
2002 In many parts of Piemonte this was the worst vintage in living memory.
We visited during the harvest and saw the damage from the hail to the fully ripe grapes. It had already been a very difficult vintage, April, May and June had been very dry which lead to the slow development of the grapes and then the rain came. It rained in July and August swelling the size of the grapes and diluting their flavours.
This was followed by some sun and it all looked like the iron was to be pulled from the fire and then came the 'grandinata' (hailstorm), in some areas it was sustained for hours destroying crops.
When hail hits ripe thin-skinned grapes it bursted them, which in turn leads to rot in the bunch. It was too late to spray and in most cases it was best to pick the crop and make the best of it. Some good wines were made, but the use of must extractors came into it's own. We prefer not to buy (knowingly) from producers who use must extractors, which by osmosis remove water from the unfermated juice, concentrating the flavours.
This is going to be a very difficult year for Piemonte, the good news is production was down, in general up to 50% for Dolcetto and 35% for other grapes.
This has at least kept quality up but more importantly means they have less to sell so may be able to maintain prices. With amount of investment recently prices need to stay strong.
Lessona
Just 60 years ago this was one of Italy's most important red wine regions and the decline has been truly spectacular. The underpinning qualities of this region remain intact and the climatic challenges are unchanged. The people moved for economic reasons, salaries were better in the cities and life was easier, so 50’s Milan and Torino drained the countryside. The lure of the city was made more attractive by the vengeance of nature, two years of unusually bad hail decimated the crops and the farmers downed tools and left leaving land whose ownership is often unknown. In a short time hills of vineyards have forested over, leaving a wild and beautiful place.
I have a feeling though that the top producers of the Alto Piemonte will become as sought after as the great names of Piemonte and Barbaresco for this is the birthplace of Nebbiolo and a land with not one, but two aces in the sleeve: Vespolino and Volcanic soils.