Art, my guess is that Ed and Bill nailed it. Not hard to imagine unripe
fruit in MI (I know in some parts it gets quite hot in summer, but my
impression is cool fall rolls in early). Now in Tuscany, normally
ripening isn't hard. But in 2002 there were hail storms which damaged
the crop, followed I think by rains. Probably only vintners who were
willing to be merciless about grape selection (with the attendant loss
of volume) made acceptable products (and I doubr anyone made stellar
ones).