Wine Production, Markets and Institutions in Italy Between Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries: A Historical Survey

Italy is currently the world’s largest producer of wine in terms of volume. Together with France and Spain—the other two main wine-producing countries—the peninsula makes up about 80% of the total EU offer, which in turn covers 60% of global production. This large production capacity was acquired by the country during the nineteenth century. Production went from 19 million hl in 1861 to an average of 31.27 million hectolitres in the 1880s; it then reached 31.95 million in the next decade (despite the outbreak of vine diseases), and finally it reached an average of 46 million hl between 1901 and 1914, with a significant increase in exports. This essay seeks to retrace the economic transformation of Italian wine production during the century before the First World War. It focuses on the domestic and international markets, which were characterized by strong fluctuations due to changes in trade relations with foreign countries and the difficulties resulting from the spread of diseases affecting the vines. It also highlights the innovative efforts, the qualitative improvements of the product and the creation of institutions aimed at promoting the national industry—which when combined created the basic structure of Italian wine geography. Though already relevant before, in the second part of the century the wine sector would acquire growing value in the country’s economy.