A visit to Cantina Torrevilla’s winemaking site just south of Milan is a chance to get a real flavor of the problems confronting this cherished old Italian industry. On a cloudy, damp-feeling October day the producer collective’s boss Massimo Barbieri speaks with pride about the grape quality for 2024’s premium La Genisia wines. But it hasn’t been an easy vintage.
Like wine-growing heartlands everywhere from Bordeaux to Napa Valley, Lombardy’s Oltrepò Pavese region is grappling with two historic challenges: a changing climate and changing tastes. It’s been incredibly rainy in northern Italy this year. Fungi took hold of some vines, and had to be dealt with hastily.
At the same time, great viniculture nations like Italy are having to adapt to the waning popularity of red wine, as younger drinkers opt for trendy craft beers and fizzy whites — or swear off alcohol entirely.
And if that’s not enough to contend with, winemakers face a third misfortune right now that’s been far less explored, one that arguably poses a greater immediate threat: the soaring cost of their debts.