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<b>Alok Chandra:</b> Wine and climate change

Climate change has impacted wine production in several ways. Here's how

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Alok Chandra
Last Updated : Jan 06 2017 | 11:05 PM IST
There is incontrovertible scientific evidence that the earth’s climate has been changing at a faster rate in the last century, and that on the average, summer temperatures over the last 20 years are higher than for at least the last 500 years.

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This has impacted wine production and quality in various ways, depending upon where the grapes were being grown in the first place. 

Earlier harvests:  For one, grape harvests are taking place earlier than ever before.  Sula started picking its white wine grapes in the Nashik area in mid-December this year, whereas 30 years back the earliest that Indage started harvesting would be in the first week of February. In Europe, the average date of harvests has rolled back by anything from 1 week to 1 month. 

Better quality: Earlier harvests and higher temperatures seem to have translated into better quality: of the last 30 vintages in Bordeaux, 7 of the top vintages have happened in just the last 15 years.  Old is not necessarily gold anymore for the best wines. 

“Before 1980, you basically needed a drought to generate the heat to get a really early harvest,” says the study’s co-author, Benjamin Cook, a climate scientist with NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City. That’s no longer required, as temperatures have increased.

Higher alcohol levels:  Higher temperatures also mean better sugar levels (“brix”) in the grapes at harvest and hence higher alcohol levels in the wine produced, which has apparently increased by between 1 per cent and 1.5 per cent. Even 20 years ago, most wines were about 12.5 per cent  to 13 per cent v/v; today its common to see wines at 14 per cent and higher.  Since higher alcohol levels translate (in red wines) to a more full-bodied mouthfeel, this ties-in with the general increase in wine quality reported.

Vineyards go north:  Climate change has also stimulated the northward movement of vineyards in Europe, as well as the planting of grape varietals in areas they could not grow in earlier.  Thirty years back, there were virtually no vineyards in the UK; today there are at least 500 vineyards there, and English sparkling wines are winning top honours in international wine competitions. Similarly the Japanese island of Hokkaido, with Siberian-like winters is now reportedly producing fine wines with Riesling and Grwerztraminer grape varietals.

So how is climate change impacting these factors in India? 

It’s already been noted that grape harvests are taking place up to one month earlier in north Maharashtra (the Nashik area); in south Maharashtra & north Karnataka (which is drier and hotter than the northern region) this trend is even more pronounced, with even red wine grapes being harvested in January/February. The vineyards around Bengaluru have so far been relatively unaffected (harvests typically take place between early-March and May) but that may change.

The quality of wine produced is, however, not impacted by warmer summers as in any case vineyards were using drip irrigation to regulate moisture supply to the vines, and the recent spurt of higher-priced and better-quality Indian wines is more a consequence of better viticultural practices, better winemaking, and investments in oak casks for maturing the wines than climate change.

Wines I’ve been drinking: Torrontes has become the signature grape of Argentina in the last 20 years, much in the same way that Pinotage has become linked to South Africa and Shiraz to Australia. The Dominio del Plata CRIOS TORRONTES 2016 I tasted recently is a revelation: with 90 points from Wine Spectator, it had aromas of flowers and white fruit and a crisp acidity and minerality that said yeh dil maange more.

Alok Chandra is a Bengaluru-based wine consultant

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