This year's 2023 harvest has been the scarcest in the history of wine in Alicante. 18,853,000 kilos of grapes have been collected, 29% less than in the previous campaign, which was already poor, with its 26 million kilos. These are data provided this morning by the Alicante Wines Protected Designation of Origin, which attributes this dramatic reduction to the prolonged drought during the summer months and the reduction of fertile plots.
Another illustrative fact of the situation that the sector is experiencing in the province is that the amount collected this year is equivalent to half of what was collected just a decade ago, when, for example, in the 2013 harvest, 40.1 million kilos of grapes.
The campaign has been exceptional due to the difficulties in obtaining more grapes, but it has not harmed the quality, since the alcoholic strength has risen a few tenths to 13.41 degrees on the Baumé scale, "and very good parameters have been recorded in white grapes and inks." This is stated by the president of the Regulatory Council, Jose Juan Reus, who regrets that, when the qualities are "so good, work becomes so difficult with such long periods of drought."
To the serious period of water shortage, he explains, we must add that there are farmers who, even having their active plots, "have not collected grapes because their farms have been approved for solar panel projects in the Vinalopó area," according to some sector technicians. , despite the fact that some projects have not been authorized or are stopped. “Or some who have already told us that it is their last harvest,” he adds.
For this reason, the Regulatory Council has once again requested the awareness of local and regional administrations to try to better manage both the soil and the wine sector, as they requested from the Minister of Agriculture in recent meetings.
By region, it is in the middle Vinalopó where 54% of the production is gathered, followed by the Upper Vinalopó with 30% and the Marina Alta with 14%. The rest is distributed between mountain areas of Comtat, Alcoiá, Marina Baja, etc. Almost 70% collected comes from red varieties and the rest from white varieties such as Muscat.
