Treviso Prosecco: hills still hand-picked after a 2003-style heat run
At Bottega in Godega Sant’Urbano, ANSA hears Sandro Bottega compare May–August heat only to 2003, with record days over 35°C, 10–30% less rain, and hail losses up to 50% on some parcels. Hills pick ~2 weeks early; plains 5–7 days — and hills still by hand.
Prosecco harvest news is often about bubbles. This week it is about hands on the hills.
ANSA reports from Bottega’s Godega Sant’Urbano site in the Treviso plain that the house still gathers and presses the old way — hand picking, vat pressing, a local end-of-pick drink. Sandro Bottega says May–August heat was only comparable to 2003, with a historic run of days above 35°C. Rainfall fell 10–30% by zone. Hail cut some parcels by as much as 50%.
That calendar pulled picking forward: about two weeks early on the hills, five to seven days on the plain. Hills remain hand-harvest country. Stefano Bottega calls 2026 a good vintage with lower volume, lower alcohol, and softer, more aromatic wines.
US tariffs, Sandro notes, hit lower-quality Italian wine harder; Prosecco stays the preferred sparkling. Young drinkers treat wine as a mixer and as no/low alcohol — quality trading up often starts around 30–35.
Mini-concept: heat advances the calendar; slope and hand labour still decide who picks when. Early does not mean machine-only on the hills.
A soft drink never lost half a parcel to hail and still asked for hand baskets on a Treviso ridge. Prosecco did.
Remember: hills ~2 weeks early, plains 5–7 days; some hail losses up to 50%; hand harvest holds on the slopes.
Source: ANSA