2025 Lombardy Harvest, Ascovilo: “High Quality, Market Under Pressure”

The 2025 harvest in Lombardy delivers high-quality grapes and an improvement over the previous vintage, but unfolds in an increasingly complex economic scenario. Below-average production, slowing consumption, rising costs, and tensions in international markets prompt Ascovilo to draw attention to the need for a systemic approach and to strengthen the role of Consortia in supporting regional viticulture.

“The 2025 harvest in Lombardy has given us encouraging signs,” notes Giovanna Prandini, president of AsCoViLo, the association of 13 Wine Protection Consortia of Lombardy. “Compared to 2024,” she continues, “we obtained very high-quality grapes thanks to a favorable vintage with good acidity, generous production, and healthy grapes.”

From an agronomic standpoint, the vintage shows a balanced profile, with regular ripening and good sanitary condition of grapes in the main Lombard wine-growing areas. A result that reinforces expectations for the quality of wines from the 2025 Lombardy harvest, albeit in a production context showing some strain.

The quantitative data remains below the recent average. “However, we remain below the average production for the 2020-2024 period,” Prandini continues, “and this, at a time of declining consumption, might not be entirely negative if it allowed us to reduce inventories from previous vintages.”

The reduction in volumes, at this stage, is also seen as a possible tool for rebalancing the market, particularly for denominations dealing with high stock levels and less dynamic demand compared to the past.

The central issue, however, remains commercial. “The real question,” adds Giovanna Prandini, “is how to support the market. Domestic and foreign demand is slowing, not only due to tariffs but also because of a shift in consumption toward other product types, in a context where costs continue to rise, compressing margins for agricultural businesses.”

Alongside declining consumption are structural factors affecting the profitability of viticulture in Lombardy, forcing businesses to revise their production and commercial strategies.

According to Ascovilo, the response to difficulties does not necessarily lie in increasing business size. “This is where we must overcome a deeply rooted misconception. Small size,” Prandini explains, “can become a competitive advantage if accompanied by a modern business culture, the ability to read numbers, to plan, and to embrace the right expertise. In this scenario, unity truly makes strength.”

Economic management, planning, and openness to specialized expertise become central elements in addressing a phase of change affecting the entire wine sector.

The role of Consortia emerges as a strategic lever. “Consortia are not just protection tools, but fundamental strategic levers,” concludes the head of the Lombard association. “Working systemically means creating critical mass, speaking with a unified voice in the markets, sharing investments in promotion, sustainability, and innovation, and enhancing denominations and territories in a coherent and recognizable way.”

“It is not size that determines the fate of Lombard wine businesses,” Giovanna Prandini concludes, “but the vision with which they face change. And today this vision inevitably requires strong collaboration between consortia and producers, capable of transforming a complex phase into an opportunity for shared growth.”