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Posted on 03/10/2006 8:49:52 PM PST by quantim
Climate change may be making some wine tastier and more potent.
Forget France.
In the future, wine buffs may be praising the merits of a fine Canadian pinot noir, the subtleties of English chardonnay, or even the complexity of a world-class Pennsylvania cabernet sauvignon.
The cause: climate change.
Some scientists believe that rising temperatures and longer growing seasons are already affecting wine, making vintages sweeter and stronger, and changing where grapes can be grown around the world.
Previously unheralded German wines have gotten surprisingly better in the last two decades. The alcohol in California wine has risen - which can be both a good and bad thing - along with the temperatures. There have even been instances where English bubbly has thumped its French counterparts in blind taste tests conducted by the magazine Which?, the English equivalent of Consumer Reports.
And with global temperatures projected to rise further, wine-growing regions in Pennsylvania may reap some benefits.
"We oftentimes toast to global warming," said Eric Miller, owner of Chaddsford Winery in Chester County. "The idea of milder winters and longer falls has a certain appeal."
Not everyone swallows the warming theory.
Many in the wine industry believe other factors - such as improvements in agriculture and wine-making - have followed consumer demand and given birth to the current generation of potent, full-bodied "trophy" wines.
The influential wine critic Robert M. Parker turns up his nose at the idea of global warming's leading to sweeter and more alcoholic wines.
Parker said that the warming influence was "inconclusive" and that the trend toward more alcoholic wine was a result of vintners worldwide picking grapes later in the season as they aim for more robust flavors.
Researchers studying the world's wine industry are scheduled to meet this month in Barcelona, Spain, at the first global meeting on the impact of climate change.
Climatologist Gregory Jones of Southern Oregon University maintains that global warming is at least in part responsible for recent wine trends. He said that the climate influenced anywhere from 10 to 60 percent of a wine's profile, from sweetness to alcoholic content.
"With growing grapes, climate is the number-one factor," said Jones, who thinks that it would be impossible to ascribe all of the changes that have occurred to new technology and better growing techniques.
Jones, a speaker at the Barcelona summit, said that California's Napa Valley was a clear example of a wine region influenced by the warming trend.
Wine there has increased in strength since the 1970s, when the average alcohol content was 12.5 percent. By 2001, the average had reached 14.8 percent, according to a 2004 study published in the trade publication Wine Business Monthly.
Jones suspects that the increase is due to the region's higher average growing-season temperatures, which Jones found to have jumped by nearly two degrees in Northern California since 1948.
The increased strength of their wine has led many Napa Valley growers to explore methods to remove the alcohol, from watering it down to reverse osmosis.
"Fifty years ago, removing alcohol was not an issue," Jones said, "because the climate of that time ripened fruit in a more balanced way."
Longer periods of sunlight and warm weather allow grapes to stay on the vine longer and produce more sugar, leading to wines with more vivid flavors and the sometimes harsh effect of higher alcohol content, Jones said.
Jones cited numerous examples of how climate change is reshaping the world of wine.
In southern England, temperatures are approaching those of warmer climes, and the total acreage of vineyards has exploded, with some buyers coming from France's far more expensive Champagne region.
In the classic French wine-growing region of Burgundy, vintners traditionally added sugar to their wines to bring up the alcohol. But in the last 10 to 15 years, that has been the exception, he said.
Increased temperatures could also force some regions to grow new varieties and change growing practices, Jones said.
"If you are in a cool-climate region like the Rhine, and the climate warms, you have to consider warmer varieties of grapes," he said. "But if you are in a climate that is already warm, there aren't any other varieties that can be grown."
Researchers in Australia say that quality growing regions for cabernet sauvignon will continue to creep southward over the next 50 years and that growers will have to adapt.
Some local winemakers welcome the warmth - at least at the moment.
"If the temperature goes up a degree or two, it certainly would not hurt us," said Jerry Forest, who has operated his 40-plus-acre Buckingham Valley winery in Bucks County since 1966.
But Forest said he had yet to see any clear link between climate change and the quality of his wine.
"Global warming is such a gradual thing that I don't think we can really judge if it has had an impact on the way we grow grapes," Forest said. "It's cyclical. I can point to things that happened in here in 1966 that also happened here in 1996."
Chaddsford's Miller said he had taken to leaving his grapes on the vine longer and had seen his popular pinot noir jump from an average of 12 percent alcohol in the early 1980s to last year's 13.5 percent.
"We used to struggle just to get 11 percent," Miller said.
Although he is critical of the climate-change hypothesis, Parker said extremely hot and dry summers like that of 2003 are changing winery practices. European vintners are reconsidering tradition-bound rules against irrigation, a topic likely to be discussed at the Barcelona summit.
"The old practice of not irrigating is going to have to stop if there are more years like 2003 and these vineyards are drying up," Parker said.
Yeah sure, Global Warming will be causing the snow from the LA area low coastal mountains to where you live.
I have to say the the increase in alcoholic content is a result of refined agronomics and science along with a "trend" and "taste" of the growers, drinkers and the market. We can put a man on the moon but want to blame global warming for adding 1% more alcohol to an alcoholic beverage? Questions or comments?
"In medieval times, England was warm enough to support 50 vineyards, and Greenland was genuinely "green" enough to be settled by the Vikings in AD986."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=26&objectid=3516831
Damn Norsemen and their damn internal combustion warships!!
It's common practice for winemakers to push the limits, and sometimes for common sense, at least at the high-end. The top boutique wines are so fruit intense they need a higher alcoholic content for the wine to have balance and be drinkable.
The alcoholic levels are being broken all the time. You see, after the alcoholic content exceeds a specificity, it is no longer 'wine.' And there the tax-mongers step in.
There is a cruel irony at work. The growers and winemakers are making product govt can't keep up with, which should not surprise anyone.
Hmm, fermenting must releases carbon dioxide. Global warming is caused by top vintage wines. Winemakers say global warming improves wine.
Finally it's all clear!
Great point. It didn't dawn on me about the tax ramifications until you mentioned it. That is a whole different facet to consider. Thanks for the comment.
Cold last night/this morning 32 in lower parts of the valley and in the mid to high 20's in the higher hills.
After all Canada was once called Vinland.
Dear Quantim,
Greetings from India. I am an Indian Catholic Christian and a Wine Enthusiast.
I am an Orthodox Indian Catholic of Portuguese Descent from the Former Portuguese Colony of Goa on the South- West Coast of India.
I am a Legal Professional with a keen interest and career in International Intellectual Property Rights and I do have a life inspite of what some may think about me after reading my profile.
I love Portuguese Culture, Music, Food, and Port Wine. I am extremely proud of my Portuguese Heritage and Culture.
My Ancestors were evangelized to Catholicism in the late 15th Century or early 16th Century by Portuguese Catholic Missionaries led by Saint Francis Xavier and his Compatriots.
My favorite Portuguese Web page is http://www.ivp.pt( The Port Wine Institute).
My all time favorite wine pages are http://www.lusowine.com -- International Portuguese Wine Portal and http://www.grantburgewines.com.au as well as http://www.wineaustralia.com
They are Wine Pages from Australia. My all time favorite wine page is http://www.wineontheweb.com. The Talking Wine Magazine.
I have a keen interest in the International Wine Industry specially in the United States, Canada, Spain, Italy, Portugal, New Zealand, and Australia.
In Goa, where I am from the Portuguese had started Wine Production more than a century back specially the production of "Port Wine". We still have a number of Wineries in Goa that produce fairly good Port Wine.
Finally, I would be most grateful if you could add me to any Wine Ping List or any Wine Thread or Posts by any Freeper on International Wine or on the International Wine Industry.
If you could put me in touch with any Freeper who has posts or threads on International Wines on a Regular Basis -- I would be grateful for that too.
Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
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Viticulture in England
http://www.wroxetervineyard.co.uk/viticulture.shtml
Much of the history of English wine is obscure but one thing is certain - England has been producing wine for a very long time. The 1987 discovery by archaeologists in Dorset of a `prehistoric` cultivated grape pip among other domestic refuse has led some to wonder if Neolithic man grew vines here. Much can only be conjecture, but it is generally accepted that the ROMANS introduced viticulture to Britannia. There were likely to have been vineyards attached to the villas scattered across what are now England's southern counties. The great vineyards along the Rhine are better known today than those of England but, interestingly enough, it is most likely that vines were growing in Sussex 700 years before they were planted in, say, the Rheingau, Germany's prime wine growing region... Wroxeter Roman Vineyard, SHREWSBURY, Shropshire, is situated at the Wroxeter Roman City, the Roman name being Uriconium, where no doubt the Romans grew vines for wine nearly 2000 years previously.
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