With the grapes safely harvested after an exceptionally long, dry and sunny autumn, Italian wine producers are hopeful of a high quality year. Predictions for the various regions expect production to be increased in Lazio, Campania and Puglia (+10%), Abruzzo (+15%) and Sicily (+40%) compared with 2007, while rather less quantity will be produced in Tuscany, Piedmont and Fruili Venezia Giulia (-5%) and Lombardy (-10%). The greatest importer of Italian wines in 2007 was the United States, followed by Germany, Britain and Switzerland.

Wine represents a major business in Italy, employing a total 700,000 people, with a turnover of over 10 milliard euro.

Over the last thirty years, wine consumption in Italy has dropped by almost 50%, due to the fact that consumers had changed their habit of drinking table wine with all their meals. Experts, however, are now predicting a change in this trend as more and more customers have gone back to the old custom of buying their wine directly from the barrel in country vineyards, encouraged by medical research confirming the health benefits of a good glass of wine.