When the first signs of trouble with the wine harvest emerged in April, France’s agriculture minister Julien Denormandie described it as “probably the greatest agricultural catastrophe of the beginning of the 21st century”. Since then, it has faced competition.
The news this week that French winemakers will produce 29 per cent less this year than last, thanks to spring frosts followed by summer rains, is more sobering evidence of the impact of climate change on the industry. It follows floods in Germany, a scorching heatwave across southern Europe, and drought in California.
Winemakers who have harvested the same grapes for generations are known for their faith in terroir — the almost mystical quality of vineyards in Bordeaux, Burgundy and Champagne. From those special soils, under their own angles of sun, emerge wonders.
Tradition and consistency are precious ingredients, creating wines that are revered by drinkers and stringently overseen by the French government. But even the most conservative growers now have to adapt: either they change how they run their vineyards, or one day they will need to find new ones.
The idea of Bordeaux being made elsewhere is unthinkable — it would breach the appellation d’origine contrôlée framework dating from 1935, which dictates exactly how and where wines are produced. But some winemakers may one day be forced to change locations: a warming climate has already turned English sparkling wine into a passable alternative to champagne.
Many products defined by their origins — cheeses, meats, fish and fibres — will face the same dilemma. The terroirs around which farmers have built not only cuisines but ways of life will feel the effects of climate change. What happens when the place where you have always been rooted is no longer the best place to do what you have always done?
On holiday in Puglia, in the heel of Italy, I passed countless fields of dead and dying olive trees. They are victims of the xylella fastidiosa bacteria rather than climate change (like the French wine blight of the 19th century, caused by the phylloxera aphid). But their dried-up, twisted trunks felt like a premonition of other disasters to come.
The changes affecting vineyards, not only in France but around the world’s wine-growing regions, are subtle by comparison. Warmer winters are producing buds that are vulnerable to spring frosts and hotter summers raise sugar levels in grapes — and alcohol levels in wines. Smoke from wildfires has tainted wines in Australia and California with bitter, ashy flavours.
There can be advantages: one study suggests that traditionally cooler regions such as Burgundy, Champagne, Alsace and the Loire Valley may gain from rising temperatures. As southern Europe gets more stressed by heat, the area of land suitable for viticulture in Austria could double by the 2050s.
But adapting to climate change requires winemakers to be innovative and flexible, qualities for which the French industry is not renowned. Producers are confined to small districts and cannot simply, for example, experiment with varieties of grape that cope with mildew better or ripen later — the rules have to change first.
“Unlike the French, the new California winemakers had no tradition or handed-down wisdom,” George Faber wrote in Judgement of Paris, his book on the state’s wine industry and its triumph in a famous 1976 blind tasting. “They couldn’t pass along a wine heritage because they didn’t have one. As a result, they became experimenters.”
Their experiments included using stainless steel tanks to keep juice cooler during fermentation because the west coast was warmer than Burgundy, and tended to produce wines with a burnt taste. “This is what is so fascinating about California. The growers have such open minds and are adventurous enough to try almost anything,” a wine writer observed in 1974.
To be fair to French winemakers, they grasp the need to evolve if they are to keep their vineyards intact. This year, the government approved six new “varieties of interest for adapting to climate change” for use in the Bordeaux and Bordeaux Supérieur appellations. They can be blended (up to 10 per cent) with grapes such as the traditional Merlot, which suffers in hotter weather.
The French are right to adopt a more Californian attitude because greater disruption looms if such changes are insufficient. They may have to move from vineyards that are integral to production and how wine is valued. Few people care whether their iPhone is made in China or India, but a “Burgundy” that is not from Burgundy could prove rather harder to swallow.
Provenance affects perception: in one study, experts enjoyed a wine less when told it was from New Jersey rather than California. Drinkers are so used to associating wines with places that changing terroir would be fraught with risk, even if it were the only option left.
Winemakers must do what they can to avoid it, including defying traditions that are being overtaken by events. It makes sense to try almost anything when the alternative is worse.
"bitter" - Google News
September 10, 2021 at 11:00AM
https://ift.tt/3BSA0gi
Climate change tastes bitter to winemakers - Financial Times
"bitter" - Google News
https://ift.tt/3bZFysT
https://ift.tt/2KSpWvj
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Climate change tastes bitter to winemakers - Financial Times"
Post a Comment