Wine And The Environment

Environment and it’s effects on winemaking.

 

Changes to the environment are all around us, sometimes they are so close that we cannot see them. Especially if we are living in commuter land in some giant metropolis, head down in a newspaper or kindle, earbuds in etc. If we leave the city we also leave the distractions that take our eye away from what is really happening, from the evolution that is being forced upon those that make their living from the land.

 

Farmers on each continent are, in today’s world unable to just keep plodding along using the same methods taught to them by those that worked the land before them, these days it is imperative that farmers are paying close attention to not only changes in technology, but also changes in ecology.

 

As our planet continues to warm before our eyes some of the changes this brings are small and insignificant, others not so.

 

Extreme weather conditions have become the new normal, blisteringly hot summers, and mild winters don’t tell the whole story, it’s often what happens in spring and autumn where the real extremes are hitting, though not quite so obvious to most of us, to farmers it is an elephant in the room that they cannot ignore.

 

 

The Winemaker

The life of a winemaker appears very glamorous to many people, but the reality is they are farmers just like any other, yet what sets them aside from regular farmers is that a vineyard is very susceptible to even the smallest changes in environment. Each year a winemaker will prepare his/her vines absolutely certain that this year will be different from last year and the year before that.

 

What makes wine so special is that no two vintages are ever the same, the nuance of conditions that affect the health of the vine and the quality of it’s fruit are at the mercy of the gods. Too much or too little rain, sunshine, humidity or dryness and the vines are going to suffer and the winemaker is going to have to work twice or three times as hard to achieve a half of what they may have expected.

 

The aim of the winemaker is to prepare their crop as best as they can to combat the environmental challenges that this year will bring, completely unaware of what those challenges might be, will this be the vintage that puts them on the map or will the entire crop be destroyed by unpredictable weather patterns?

 

All the winemaker can do is prepare the vines as best as possible, then pray.

 

 

Devastation

Think I’m exaggerating? Look back to 2017 when Spring frosts wiped out 80% of all Bordeaux’s vines, or back to 2022 when Spring floods destroyed a similar % of Australia’s South-Eastern vineyards. 2020 saw wildfires destroy 42,000 acres of vineyards in Napa and Sonoma Counties resulting in loss of life, infrastructure and an entire vintage, with the grapes that escaped fire suffering instead from smoke taint.

 

While it is possible that these events can happen anywhere anytime, and history does record strong Spring frosts in France and also higher than usual rainfall in S.E Australia, not to mention Californian wildfires, unpredictable weather conditions are happening more and more often than ever before.

 

 

New Regions

Long dry summers in the Northern hemisphere has seen wine making spread to regions that in the past have been too cold/damp for grapes to mature. Leading to vineyards springing up in countries that are not traditional wine producers. Sparkling wine production in South East England is booming, aided in no small measure by it’s wines winning awards up against vintage Champagne.

 

Ice-wine from Sweden is gaining recognition Internationally, and as of 2018 Norway is producing export quality Riesling. Belgian wine producers are now able to plant red varieties to replace the low alcohol whites they have been known for. As average temperatures climb neighbours the Netherlands has gone from 7 wineries in 1997 to 180 in 2022.

 

Although wine production in Eastern Europe is certainly not new, climate change has allowed Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Moldova to name but three to become serious wine producers. While traditional producers Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, and Croatia have also made huge strides forward in recent years enabling them to match their Western European counterparts for quality and production volume.

 

It isn’t just Europe, China is currently the World’s 5th largest wine producer. While Japan now has two Internationally recognised AOC regions that are starting to show favourable conditions for Pinot Noir.

 

Across the Pacific wine production in Canada is in full swing, with Canada producing more ice-wine than every other global producer combined. Whilst vines were planted in New York State 175 years ago it has taken until only recently that conditions allowed their wines to achieve export quality. New York State is now the 3rd largest producer of wine in the US behind only Oregon and California.

 

Evolution

As new producers and regions emerge traditional wine regions face unique challenges, as their environment evolves so too will their wines and their winemaking techniques.

 

Traditional French big hitters such as Bordeaux and Burgundy whose wines have been synonymous with the highest quality imaginable for at least a century and a half will see the characteristics of their wines change, unlikely to ever return to what we have all come to know and love. It will be attempts to maintain traditional nuances in their wines which could ultimately be the downfall of the once untouchable powerhouses of French wine in particular. The close relationship with tradition being the driving force that has kept French wines at the top of the quality tree since 1855 will need to be evolved or it will be the French wine industry that suffers the most from changes to the environment.

 

For consumers like you and me the evolution of wine production will mean that our favourite wines will take on new characteristics, some for good, some for bad. While wine regions will have to evolve in order to survive, consumers expectations will also have to be managed. Over time our favourite wines will change their characteristics and with the flooding of the market of wines from new emerging producers the landscape of the world of wine may never be the same again, literally.