Vines in Spain: ripening slow and getting ripped up

In the news in Spain today was a report in the economic journal Expansion on vineyards. The 2008 harvest is looking to be one of the longest ever, with some areas still being harvested. The overall harvest is expected to ease 2% from last year's to 39.7 million hectoliters (1.05 billion gallons).

In Catalunya, the harvest is expected to be down by 10%. For many growers this could be their final harvest. Under the EU vine reduction program, Catalan growers have requested support to uproot 1.970 hectares of vineyards or 7.6 square miles of vines. In total, Spain is leading all other EU nations in requesting aid to tear up 100,000 hectares of vines (386 square miles). This is 22% more than the combined requests of Italy (58,435 ha.) and France (22,700 ha.). Requests from the big three wine grape producing nations have already exceeded the target budgeted by the EU. It remains to be seen if all requests will be accepted by the EU.