 Global Warming and Wine from Cellar Fine Wines (Fall 2008) There's good news and bad coming from climatologists like Gregory Jones at Southern Oregon University, who tracks the effects of climate change on vineyards around the world. On the down side are projections for warmer zones: America's premium wine production, for instance, could shrink by a whopping 81% by century's end, thanks to more days with maximum temperatures and heat spikes of 95 degrees F and up, which cause stressed grapevines to stop photosynthesis. Similarly in the Old World, an increase of 2 to 3 degrees C (4.2 to 6.3 degrees F) could disrupt the harmony between certain grape types and their native environments, imperiling regional wine identities that have existed for centuries. Translation: Rioja could be too hot for tempranillo, Chianti for sangiovese, and Cote-Rotie for syrah. Two degrees seems a pittance. "That's a challenge in the whole climate-change sector," Jones acknowledges. "When you say, 'Temperatures are going to warm by one or two degrees,' the problem is that number does not seem important. People are like, well, that doesn't seem like enough to matter.'" But 1 degree C propelled medieval Europe into its hot Little Optimum age (900-1300 AD), when vineyards stretched as far north as England and the Baltic Sea. (Those vineyards died out when the weather got too cold--a total temperature different of 2 to 3 degrees C--in the ensuing Little Ice Age.) And now the good news. Recent warming has already pushed cooler wine zones like Piedmont, Burgundy, and parts of Germany into optimal temperature ranges for grape-growing. "We're enjoying a golden age," says Aldo Vacca, director of the Produttori del Barbaresco. Piedmont's average growing-season temperature climbed 1 degree C in the 1990s, which meant longer summers and riper grapes. Moreover, nebbiolo now thrives in Piemontese vineyards that were once too cool for the slow-ripening grape. "There's been a 25 percent increase in acreage in both Barolo and Barbaresco in the last seven years," Vacca notes, "thanks to this new climate." The golden age might be fleeting. According to Jones, the Barolo zone could be another 1.4 degrees C hotter by 2049--an orange alert for finicky nebbiolo. Bottom line? Now's the time to snatch up Barolo and other terroir-driven wines. Patricia Thomson is a wine journalist and president of La Dolce Vita Wine Tours. © 2008 Patricia Thomson |