CORTE FRANCA, Italy (AP) — Workers fan out before dawn to clip clusters of grapes destined to be transformed into Italy’s prized Franciacorta sparkling wine a full 10 days earlier than anticipated, as scorching temperatures brought the fruit to maturation earlier than ever.Climate change is narrowing the window for harvesting wine grapes, forcing winemakers to make quick decisions when even a few days can mean the difference between a good vintage and a bad one.“These are delicate, frantic moments, and everything has to work perfectly,’’ said Berlucchi CEO Arturo Ziliani, whose father, Franco, in 1961 became the first winemaker in the hilly Franciacorta wine-producing region to begin making sparkling wines with the “classic” method famously employed by France’s Champagne makers.“We did not expect such an early harvest or such an acceleration in ripening,” Ziliani said.
Heat forces predawn picking under floodlightsWeeks of temperatures reaching highs between 37 and 38 degrees Celsius (99 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit), combined with below-average rainfall, have pushed some winemakers in Franciacorta to record the earliest start on record — about 10 days earlier than last year and about a month earlier than three decades ago.
