Italian wine harvest down, quality good

(ANSA) - Rome, August 4 - Italian farmers' association Coldiretti said Friday that this year's grape harvest is set to generate 10-15% less wine that the 51.6 billion hectolitres produced in 2016.
    The association said that this was due to the dry winter and the ongoing heat wave-drought, which has also led to the harvest coming by around 10 days with respect to last year, making it the earliest in a decade.
    Nevertheless, Coldiretti said it expects this year's wine to be good or excellent, while stressing that much still depends on the weather in August and September.
    Despite the forecast fall in production, Italy is still set to make more wine this year than France, Coldiretti said.