Italy wine makers see small but fabulous crop

By Svetlana Kovalyova

MONTEPULCIANO, Italy, Sept 26 (Reuters) - As a dozen of people work their way up a Tuscan hill picking up heavy purple grapes, they look up at a blue sky hoping no rain will spoil what seems to be a top quality wine harvest in Italy.

Italy, Europe's second-biggest wine producer after France, is heading for its smallest grape harvest in 30 years with output falling 12 percent to 43.5 million hectolitres, according to a recent wine industry forecast.

But with the harvest under way in Tuscany, home to red wine Chianti and its more up-market cousins Brunello di Montalcino and Nobile di Montepulciano, wine growers and makers do not seem to be worried about an estimated 5-15 percent fall in output in the region as long as its quality is good.

"It will be a great vintage, of the best quality," said Luca Gattavecchi, chairman of Consorzio del Vino Nobile di Montepulciano, which represents 290 growers and makers of the wine which traces its history back to the year 790.

Makers of typical Montepulciano wines -- Nobile and Rosso -- which belong to top quality categories like DOC (Denomination of Controlled Origin) and DOCG (Denomination of Controlled and Guaranteed Origin) have always bet on quality rather than quantity to win consumers' hearts, Gattavecchi said.

"We are not that worried about the output drop," he said.

Predominantly dry weather this year has trimmed production yields, or the amount of wine produced from a certain amount of grapes, as grapes have developed a thicker skin and less liquid, but it also boosted their sugar content, wine growers said.