An overall excellent year in terms of quality, characterized by regular ripening of the Moscato Bianco. These are the Asti DOCG Consortium’s forecasts for the 2025 harvest across the 10,000 hectares of the Denomination, which began a few days ago in the early-ripening lower hillside areas and will conclude in the higher hills by the first week of September. The grapes are currently in favorable phytosanitary condition, with good acidity, sugar content, and aroma retention. In terms of quantity, the harvest will also need to take into account the reduction in yields for the 2025 harvest season, from 100 to 90 quintals per hectare, of which 5 quintals are destined for storage. These production containment measures were approved by the consortium with the aim of safeguarding the Denomination in an increasingly complex economic environment, further exacerbated by the confirmation of the 15% US tariff on wine.
2025 Harvest: Asti DOCG Concerns Over the Perfect Storm of US Tariffs
Excellent quality in the vineyard, therefore, but growing concerns on the market front. As Stefano Ricagno, president of the Asti DOCG Consortium, also highlights:
“While all the conditions are in place for an excellent 2025 harvest, the US tariffs risk weighing heavily on Asti DOCG. Not only for the sparkling wine, which is already suffering from a collapse in orders from Russia—its primary market—with the conflict taking its toll; but above all, they will weigh on Moscato d’Asti, where the style is at home and accounts for 60% of its foreign sales in the US.”
Added to this is the risk of substitution with local Moscato, which, though of lower quality, will become even more affordable. A perfect storm for us, which we are trying to stem, including through containment measures to maintain the balance between supply and demand, but we need the support of the institutions.
