A kilo of wine grapes is not a bottle. August 2026 is not one Europe.
Champagne pays like jewellery. 2025 fermage on Grand Cru Côte des Blancs is €8.70/kg, down 22 cents from 2024 after three up years. Harvest 2026 is on. The cheque is not. Lanson wants minus 5 to 10 percent. CIVC cut marketable yield to 8,800 kg/ha from 9,000.
Cava grapes in Penedès and Requena are offered at €0.25–0.30/kg, some leftover at €0.12. The cap is 10,000 kg/ha, down from 10,500. Corpinnat’s floor is €0.94. Rioja’s 2025 mean was €0.83 red and €0.80 white, up on 2024. Red cap 5,850 kg/ha; actual 4,206. Whites: cap 9,000, actual 5,817. 2026 lists are not out.
Italy is mid-harvest. Verona Pinot Grigio DOC is €0.50–0.56, down on 2025. Glera for Prosecco DOC in Friuli is €1.15–1.18, almost flat. Barolo, Brunello and Chianti are not quoted. Means: Barolo €2.57, Brunello €2.50, Chianti Classico €1.75, Chianti €0.55. Paper yields: Chianti Classico 6,500 kg/ha, Brunello 7,000 — first hectare stays 8,000. That Sangiovese gap is stocks talking.
East of the Alps the kilo is another crop. Romania processors: €0.35–0.40. Recaș is picking early — 13,000 tonnes on 1,200 ha, ~10,800 kg/ha. Quantity is not the story. Bulgaria: whites ~€0.80, reds ~€0.65. 2025 wine-grape yield: 4,367 kg/ha, down 10 percent. Moldova: €0.34–0.41 for 8,000–9,000 kg/ha, bigger than 2025. North Macedonia’s Vranec floor is that cheap band, €0.35, after a 36 percent rise since 2022.
A cap in kg/ha is not a price. Champagne and Tuscany cut kilos to defend the name. Cava is drowning in kilos. The grower sees the kilo.
Remember: the same kilo pays twenty-five Cava cents or almost nine Champagne euros.