The grape harvest in Sicily started a few days ago and promises grapes of great quality. Meanwhile, there are producers looking for ways to free the cellars from the wine they have already produced. This is the short circuit with which the sector enters the 2026 campaign: almost three million hectoliters in tanks, stocks increased by almost 32% in one year, seven million in public support for the green harvest, and the request from cooperative centers to resort to crisis distillation. Resources to produce less grapes and others that could be used to remove excess wine from the market. Just as Assovini announces a harvest with positive premises.
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The president of Assovini Sicily Gabriella Favara claims “a path made of quality, innovation, and constant pursuit of excellence, contributing to giving value to the territories and the people who protect them.” And just after being elected, she also indicated the other priority: “Our goal is to listen more and more to the needs of the market.” “The premises for the 2026 harvest in Sicily are definitely positive,” adds vice president Pietro Pollara, who points out replenished water reserves and good phytosanitary conditions. “We expect a high-quality harvest.”
Almost an entire harvest still in the cellar
Gaetano Mancini, president of Confcooperative Sicily, Filippo Parrino of Legacoop Sicily, Andrea Amico of Unci Sicily, and Felice Coppolino of Unicoop Sicily put in black and white the other side: “The cellars are preparing to welcome the new harvest while the tanks are still full of wine.” If stocks grow faster than the market’s capacity to absorb them, they warn, prices and liquidity are compressed.
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But the cooperative world also provides different pictures. Cantine Ermes, the largest first-level Italian wine cooperative, opened the 2026 harvest precisely in Trapani with a structure that far exceeds Sicilian borders: over 3,000 grape growers, more than 16,000 hectares, 16 plants, and a harvest that in about one hundred days crosses seven regions. President Rosario Di Maria foresees yields “likely lower than an ordinary year,” but notes first grapes with “a good balance and interesting qualitative characteristics.” A model based on scale and territorial diversification that introduces an additional variable within the same cooperative system.
Icqrf data still measure the Sicilian phenomenon. As of June 30, 2.94 million hectoliters were held in the island’s cellars, compared to 2.23 million a year earlier: over 711 thousand more. Of these, 1.56 million are PDO and 1.10 million PGI: over 90% of the stocks. This does not mean they are all unsold: a share is aging, certified, destined for bottling, or already committed. But the ratio between what remains in the cellar and what is about to be produced signals an imbalance.
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