FWIF, the is scary albeit could be reality at this pace of global warming.
Still wine in champagne, English bubbly, Michigan cabs and Canadian Pinots!
Some of the English bubblies are excellent, and British Columbia now produces some very good reds, as well as whites now. Haven’t had any Michigan cabs, so I can’t pronounce on those.
There are several dubious aspects of the story. First, it assumes that climate change will result in warmer and/or dryer conditions everywhere. In fact, climate change may make some areas cooler and wetter.
Second, the improved quality in places like England, Michigan and Tasmania probably has little to do with climate change (or only reflects a string of warm recent vintages which may be nothing more than ordinary statistical variation). From what I know of British Columbia and England and the Finger Lakes – another cool region – it has much more to do with improved viticulture and winemaking.
Finally, days or hours of sunlight are still crucial to grape ripening. Even if you assume that Kent and Sussex and the Okanagan of British Columbia are getting warmer, how much does that help given their northerly latitudes (50 degrees more north)?
This is what gives a strong growing season to the northern latitudes. The angle of sunlight provides much more “useable” sunlight to mid-higher latitudes during the summer.
Exactly. For example the relatively cool summer days of midnight sun result in quite small yet ridiculously intense strawberries. The huge and juicy but rather flavorless strawberries grown in the Central and Southern Europe stand no chance whatsoever against those. I imagine it’d be quite the same with grapes - after all, they need as much sunlight as possible, and that’s what you get the higher up north you go.
That’s a good point. Between the equinoxes, the sun is higher the further you go from the equator. Of course, it also means that the sun is lower in the sky after Sept. 21, when most red grapes are at a critical ripening stage. I assume that’s one of the reasons, and not just warmth, that white grapes perform better than reds as you move north.
But if the sun is so useable in the summer, why aren’t you Finns making great wines? Why is it that it that no one is producing good wines north of ~50 degrees latitude, even in temperate regions? Why do the Germans and Austrians have to resort to such steep slopes to capture the sunlight if the light is so great from March to September?
I don’t know that you can analogize between strawberries and grapes or other fruits. Each species seems to have its own requirements.
I was writing a lengthier post in my previous comment about sunlight angles and so forth, but scrapped it because I thought it wouldn’t be interesting to go there. And along comes your comment. 
So yeah, you are correct in that the steep slopes help concentrate the sunlight, because the higher up north you go (vice versa on the southern half of the globe), the less energy there is per a certain area on a flat surface. And you’re right about how there starts to be too little sunlight during the most critical time (i.e. the harvest). However, the harvest time really depends on the temperatures - you can pick red grapes in Southern Italy in August and white grapes in Germany in late October.
Of course one can’t analogize directly between two different fruits, but the idea still holds some water. Grapes perform well when they receive much sunlight but the temperatures remain relatively moderate (i.e. they don’t get either sunburned or plain overripe). Of course the main difference between Finland (or other northerly countries) and actual wine countries is that it is too darn cold here to grow wine grapes: even the earliest-ripening grapes struggle to ripen fully in the warmest vintages and freezing winters usually kill all but the hardiest of varieties, whereas the strawberries fare really well. But that is for now. If the temperatures continue to go up, it is very possible that you can grow some grapes up here too. Perhaps the northerly countries can be the next Mosels and Champagnes when it gets too warm to produce good Riesling or sparkling wine in the classic regions. Perhaps they can take over Garnachas and Mourvèdres when the Mediterranean wine regions start to turn into uninhabitable deserts?
And by the way, I’ve had some Latvian wine (produced somewhere between ~56-57 degrees latitude) that was pretty serious. I’ve also understood that they make some quite impressive wines in Sweden as well. Definitely wines to challenge Burgundies, but you’ve got to admit that the damn Frenchies do have a head start of some centuries or millennia.
There are a few interesting in Sweden already. Give us another 30 years.
For learning/experimentation or climate change? ![[wink.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/04707e6a7bbb03e0153e349d8a9270d30e1e9525.gif "wink"){kind=small}
It will be the former, but then attributed in the news to the latter.
It’s preposterous to ignore the effects of global warming. Aside from light, temperature is a key factor for photosynthesis. Ideal temperature is between 55F and 70F. At prolonged exposure over 90F you are getting raisins, changing the phenolic composition. Sure its not each vintage, but the frequency of “hot vintages in last 15 yrs” the data is scary. For e.g. it is 2017,15,11,09,03 in Piedmont; 15,12,09,05,03 in burgundy. Almost 1/3 of them are hot, and its only increasing.
The idea of static vineyard map in a dynamic world is ridiculous. 40 years back we had less ripe vintages and ripe vintages. Now we have ripe vintages and over-ripe vintages, and this is in places with continental climates. The “grand sites” were revered as the got the most sunshine and the snow were the first to melt, resulting in riper grapes in a marginal environment. With climate change, these sites are too hot. Its forcing me to re-think what the better sites are. Better implying, cooler yet not too cool.
I haven’t had any English bubbly or Michigan wines yet, but Norman Hardie (Canadian) PNs and chards were some of the best I tasted coming out of North America. Austrian reds are getting much better. Its benefiting extreme marginal places like champagne, syrah is moving north to Beaujolais and still PNs coming from Champagne. I wonder if grenache will be permitted to move north to N.Rhone!
I know the conversation will not be started by those who own the “grand sites” that were ranked 300 years back or those who want to make wines in already hot areas with 17% alcohol. But as a consumer, I hope we start the discussion.
As I understand it, if a lot of the sea ice on the north pole melts, the jet stream could invert and the opposite could occur.