Prosecco harvest hits 90% after rain rescue

The Prosecco harvest in Conegliano Valdobbiadene is 90 percent finished, the appellation's Consorzio said on September 15, after rain in the second half of the month rescued grapes stressed by a summer of record night heat.

Picking began around August 24, roughly ten days ahead of the historical average and a week earlier than in 2025. Because the DOCG's steep hillside vineyards, known locally as the Rive, are harvested by hand, the campaign still stretches over the usual 20 to 25 days, even with the earlier start.

The first lots, picked on August 24 and 25, came in lighter than expected. Diego Tomasi, director of the Consorzio di Tutela del Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco DOCG, says September rain reversed that. Water arrived twice: once after the opening pick, and again when roughly 40 percent of the crop remained on the vine. Both times, he says, it rehydrated the berries without triggering rot.

A harvest that starts in fear of drought and ends in relief still counts as a normal vintage.

Rain rescues the Prosecco harvest

The relief mattered because the season had offered little of it. No sustained soaking rain, the kind that delivers 50 to 60 millimeters over several days and rebuilds soil moisture, had fallen since June 10. Growers with fixed irrigation or emergency systems fared better, but water alone could not fully offset the heat.

Canopy management did more. Tomasi says bunches left exposed to direct sun can reach 50 degrees Celsius, a temperature no amount of irrigation corrects afterward. Producers who held off on aggressive leaf-thinning and topping protected their grapes; the Consorzio now points to that restraint as a lesson for future vintages under a warming climate.

Nights hotter than the 2003 vintage

Tomasi compares 2026 to 2003, 2015 and 2022, the region's hottest recent years. Daytime highs were close to 2003's, with about 60 days above 30 degrees Celsius against 55 that year. The real anomaly was overnight: Conegliano Valdobbiadene logged nearly 50 nights above 23 degrees, three degrees above the usual tropical-night threshold and about three degrees warmer, on average, than 2003's nights. The first night that hot was recorded only in 2024.

Despite that, incoming grapes show strong health, the Consorzio says, with acidity the only figure still being watched as it declines slowly through the final stretch of ripening. Tomasi expects volume close to 2025's and calls the vintage, overall, within the range of normal.

The rescue sets Conegliano Valdobbiadene apart from other 2026 harvests: France's wine harvest is tracking its lowest level since 1957, while Rioja's earliest-ever harvest reopened a fight over grape prices.

The appellation's technical office expects a clearer aromatic picture by late November. Official production figures are due on December 15, the deadline set by DOCG rules, giving the sparkling wine trade its first hard numbers on a harvest that started in fear of drought and ended in relief.