Italian Wine Gives Its Owners Yet Another Cause for Regret (1)

A visit to Cantina Torrevilla’s winemaking site just south of Milan is a chance to get a real flavor of the problems confronting this cherished old Italian industry. On a cloudy, damp-feeling October day the producer collective’s boss Massimo Barbieri speaks with pride about the grape quality for 2024’s premium La Genisia wines. But it hasn’t been an easy vintage.

Like wine-growing heartlands everywhere from Bordeaux to Napa Valley, Lombardy’s Oltrepò Pavese region is grappling with two historic challenges: a changing climate and changing tastes. It’s been incredibly rainy in northern Italy this year. Fungi took hold of ...