Prosecco exports face climate pressure as Veneto vineyards adapt

The Veneto's Prosecco belt faces mounting pressure from heat and drought, challenges that have begun to reshape vineyard management across the region's Treviso and Valdobbiadene zones, according to reporting from France 24 and the Financial Times on climate impacts in European wine regions. Summer temperatures in the northeast have risen roughly 1.5 degrees Celsius since the 1990s, and June's extended heatwave—which the BBC reported killed hundreds across Italy—accelerated ripening cycles and reduced acidity in grapes, a critical measure of Prosecco's character. Producers are responding by planting vineyards at higher elevations, where cooler microclimates offer temporary refuge, and experimenting with less familiar varieties bred to tolerate heat stress.

Prosecco is a cornerstone of Veneto's export economy, generating roughly €2 billion annually in sales abroad according to figures cited by the Financial Times. The wine's success has rested partly on the region's temperate climate and the precise balance of sugars and acids that the Glera grape achieves in the Treviso hills. A sustained shift in that climate threatens not only yields but the wine's identity—a risk that exporters and foreign wine critics have begun to articulate publicly.