Stefano Bonaccini, the president of the Emilia-Romagna wine region, believes it has suffered damages of up to €10bn, including the consequential costs of lost production. The government has approved an aid package of €2bn, €200m of which was released on Tuesday as emergency aid.
Many farms still inaccessible
More than 20 rivers burst their banks, hundreds of landslides devastated countryside. Roads are still closed, access to vineyards is difficult, sometimes impossible.
Most affected is Romagna, where over 5,000 farms were flooded. The Romagna Wine Consorzio is still assessing the damage to the vineyards. The wine and culture event, "Vini ad Arte", which was to take place in the last week of May, had to be cancelled.
"We have various problems. My home in the plain was flooded and our Villa Papiano winery is inaccessible because of the landslides. The acute phase is receding but we are totally exhausted. We are isolated in Villa Papiano, all three access roads are badly damaged. My staff walk six kilometres to get to the winery. Tonight the municipality should restore electricity with the help of a generator, so we can at least start spraying. The buildings are still standing, two vineyards have minor damage, but one is extremely affected," says agronomist and co-owner of the organic winery Francesco Bordini, describing the situation on the evening of 24 May 2023 in the mountain village of Modigliana. In Modigliana, people are still being flown out by helicopter.
An employee of the Celli winery described the situation in Bertinoro: "The floods have damaged our vineyards less than the hail a few days ago. But in the neighbourhood it is bad. In the Giovanna Madonia vineyard, a landslide has buried the access to the vineyards, and spraying is absolutely necessary."
An employee of the Celli winery described the situation in Bertinoro: "The floods have damaged our vineyards less than the hail a few days ago. But in the neighbourhood it is bad. In the Giovanna Madonia vineyard, a landslide has buried the access to the vineyards, and spraying is absolutely necessary."
Downy mildew, damaged roots, mudslides
After the heavy rain, there was sunshine, but by 23 May the rains returned. In these weather conditions, downy mildew spreads like wildfire. What can still be saved from the 2023 harvest must now be salvaged. The situation makes it difficult for even tractors get stuck in the muddy vineyards.
It is also not yet clear how well the roots have survived standing in the water for so long. "As I heard from colleagues in the provinces of Imola and Forlì, the plants were one metre under water for 72 hours, so there was a risk of suffocation. In the hills, we are dealing with mudslides and landslides that have also swept away some vineyards, but all in all, the situation is manageable," Gianmaria Cesari, managing director of the large Umberto Cesari winery in Castel San Pietro Terme, told the portal Winenews. After several months of drought, the soil can no longer absorb all the water.
But it was not only the torrential rain with peaks of up to 50cm within 36 hours - and thus about half of the annual rainfall - that brought about the disaster. Apart from the capital Rome, the region is considered the most heavily built area in Italy. The water floods therefore had little chance of being absorbed by the soil.
As elsewhere, climatic disasters like this are becoming more likely in Italy due to climate change.
