2014 'good year' for Italian wine if sun shines

Grape harvest employs 1.25 mln people, generates 9.5 bn euros

(ANSA) - Turin, September 2 - 2014 could be a good year for Italian wine - providing the sun shines in September after the wettest summer in decades, farmers' association Coldiretti said Tuesday. In the event of fine weather this month, vintners can expect a good harvest from Italy's 650,000 hectares of vineyards even though the country has seen the wettest summer since the 1960s, the organisation said.

The annual grape harvest employs 1.25 million people with a turnover of around 9.5 billion euros. Last year, Italy produced 49 million hectolitres of wine compared to 46.4 million hectolitres produced in France, Coldiretti said.