Weather puts high pressure on wine harvest pricing

No-one needs to be told what a washout our UK summer has been. But similar stories across Europe have meant that wine crops are going to be severely reduced. Some producers are hoping that a decrease in quantity might mean an increase in quality. But all this is bound to put pressure on wine prices.

English wine producers are harvesting 2 weeks later this year and looking at much smaller crops due to the lack of sun and plentitude of rain. Many are hoping for some low pressure in September to bring the sugar levels up. The upside is that smaller berries mean intense flavours so we could see some interesting wines this year.For the sparkling producers, a smaller yield is not causing too much alarm. Ridgeview say they will rely on stocks from the bumper harvest of 2010, and will hope for a bigger harvest in 2013 to replenish reserve wines.

In France they are expecting the lowest harvest since 1991 and dubbing it a winemakers vintage the term used to describe a difficult vintage. A hot August did salvage some of the effects of heavy rain in April and May. Italy also, is expecting the smallest wine harvest since 1950 with a 3.5% decrease on 2011 quantities.

Meanwhile in California the 2012 harvest is up 9% in volume from last year. But experts warn that California may still be looking for a price hike as so many producers had previously been forced to offload stock selling high quality wines at lower prices levels.