PSA-60 Minutes Tonight -Segment on the Influence of Climate Change on Wines/Vineyards

I have had others. My point is that it’s not going to rival Oregon Pinot in ten years. Not as a whole as a region. No.

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Was that the Pinot I left for you Jim? If so, it’s Vancouver Island which is still a step behind the Okanagan, but I agree with you either way that I don’t see BC catching Oregon, certainly not as a whole.

No. We tried that one a while back and it was, well, it was okay. I don’t have my notes on the other one and don’t think I’m going to or can even get to the winery today so I cannot say what it was. It was not identifiable as Pinot Noir but, according to the internet, it was an upper tier wine (not that that specifically means anything).

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In 2019, I was in London and got to attend an event where the Kent wineries were pouring and showcasing their wines. The wineries are not far from London. I can attest that the quality was very high but so were the prices. Another impression that I came away with was after noting how humble and down to earth a number of great winemakers were in France, as a group the British were arrogant.

I have included links to a few of websites from wineries that I thought were notable but I recall Squerryes being my favorite.

I found it interesting that they were looking to Spain and other warmer climate grapes to plant in Bordeaux and other areas of France.

Even more so that they’ve been bringing in tankers of Spanish wine into France for decades to supplement and blend. But what do I know? newhere flirtysmile

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Wine regions adapt. There are a lot of grapes that are well adapted to heat and although the future of grapes might perhaps not be Pinot in CA, it could well be Assyrtiko, Petit Manseng or Palomino etc.

I haven’t seen the 60 Minutes episode yet, but every time this comes up, I mention that the models (at least used to be, may have changed in recent years) suggest the north coastal regions will stay about the same, or possibly even cool a little. More intense weather is part of that, i.e, droughts and storms, but unless we start getting regular summer rains (with no sign of that yet), I expect Napa and Sonoma to be able to continue producing excellent wines well into the future. Presumably Oregon and Washington as well.

Impressive…27 posts and this thread isn’t in Asylum yet.

or Politics [whistle.gif]

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Maybe some quarters are finally passing from the second to the third stage?

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

Arthur Schopenhauer

In all our lifetimes the issue with wine and climate change is not going to be turning Pinot Noir grapes to Cabernet or Cabernet to Tempranillo or whatever. The issue is basically this.

Fire.

There’s more of it, more often, in more places and covering far more ground than ever before more intensely. It’s going from figuring out how to adjust and adapt to not having saleable wine no matter what you do. That’s the issue. Everything else is window dressing.

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Insects are not to be ignored.

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Not sure the right place to put this–but think just moving north isn’t going to be much of a solution. With polar vortexes now seemingly every year, British Columbia is having some serious issues growing grapes:

  • More than 50% crop loss for 2023
  • Close to 100% crop loss for 2024
  • Additional significant crop loss for 2025 due to tertiary bud damage
  • Additional significant crop losses for 2025-2027 due to vine death

Ugh, the PNW is really getting hammered the past 7-8 years between wildfire season in summer and early fall and then these increasingly common polar vortexes in the winter. We got the blunted edge of that January cold snap in Seattle. It was wild looking out the window each day at my plants that typically over winter quite easily, as they succumbed over a few days to the temps in the teens (F). The first couple of days they were hanging in there but by day 4 they were done. Gonna be interesting seeing what the die off actually is come spring for hardier stuff like hydrangeas.

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