In general the winter was dry, with little rain, not very cold, but quite long so that the vegetative stage of the vines started later than average. The springtime was normal with a lot of rain. The vines flowered regularly during the first decade of June for all grape varieties. The high temperature during the second half of June made the vines recover the late start (of the vegetative stage). The month of July and of August were generally, except for a few zones such as Conegliano- Valdobbiadene, particularly warm and dry (source: Assoenologi – Associazione enologi enotecnici italiani).

MONTEFORTE D’ALPONE (Province of Verona): The winter in this zone was cold with little rain and without snow. The weather during springtime was average. The weather was bad till the end of May. This influenced the Garganega grapes which are delicate during the flowering and during the (fruit) setting phases causing a lower grape yield.

Claudio Gini – Azienda Agricola Gini (Soave Classico DOC, Recioto di Soave DOCG):”..we picked the Garganega grapes from the 2-3 October till the 25th of the month. As there was less fruit on the vines, the plants did not suffer because of the dry summer. Although the temperature during the summer was high, the acidity was good. The Garganega base wines are still fermenting (we interviewed Claudio on the 15th of November). The quality and quantity of the other varietals is good. We are satisfied with the quality of the 2012 wines ….”

NEGRAR (Province of Verona): The springtime was rainy till mid June. In July and in August it was very hot with very little rain. In September there were quite heavy rains before the harvest.

Antonio Mazzi – Azienda Agricola Mazzi (Amarone della Valpolicella Classico DOC, Recioto della Valpolicella Classico DOC, Valpolicella Classico Superiore DOC): “….we started the harvest on the 17th of September and we finished on the 9th of October. We had to stop picking for a few days because of rain. The harvest of grapes that are dried (as for the production of Amarone, Recioto and, in the case of this estate, for the Valpolicella Vigneto Poiega where the grapes are dried for 30 days before being pressed) takes longer as the clusters have to be carefully selected and, in case of rain, the grapes must be perfectly dry when they are picked in order to avoid rot. The grape yield was average, even though in this area, in August, everybody thought that the yield would be low. It is still early to judge Valpolicella as the alcoholic fermentation is still ongoing. I think we will make the whole range of our wines, although we will have to wait and see whether it will be possible to dry the grapes for Recioto till January (this depends on the weather conditions). The grapes for the production of Amarone will probably dry till mid December, but it will depend on the weather. We will have a better idea on the wines after we rack them off… ”