We are changing the climate and the climate will change our habits inexorably. What does this mean for the world of wine? The world’s most famous wine regions are currently situated in areas of very limited size which automatically makes them more sensitive to the effects of climate change than is the case for crops which are grown more extensively. In general, a specific region’s wine style is the result of its ‘basic’ climate while this latter’s year-to-year variability affects the various harvests. There is thus no doubt that climate changes which modify annual averages as well as increases or decreases in such averages have the potential to change a wine’s style, personality and importance. So if the climate changes, everything changes.
We have lined up everything the wine sector can do to adapt to climate change rather than simply passively enduring it, point by point, whilst doing something for the planet at the same time.
Our memories are relatively short: if we ask an elderly farmer how the climate is changing he or she would probably tell us that catastrophic events have always happened. And our elderly farmer is of course right, but it is the frequency of these events, their time frames and intensity, which have changed. And this is if we talk simply of events which we have had hands on experience of, and it is less likely that we will be able to feel a 1.5-2°C difference in temperature in our everyday lives.
There are two key issues in all this: adaptation and mitigation. The former is what we can do to adapt to what is happening. The latter is what we can do to temper the effects of climate change, to slow it down or reduce it.
We can give up on areas which were once very well suited to winegrowing but that this will not be true of in the future. We can move the vineyards to cooler or higher altitude areas and, in areas once suited to specific grape varieties, we can start planting varieties better able to resist temperature fluctuations or more heat resistant. In Franciacorta this has meant planting Erbamat, for example.
Water collection and management: if much less rain is falling in certain areas and what rain there is lasts less long and is heavier, with extremely drought-ridden periods, this means collecting and storing rainwater when it does fall with a view to using it when it isn’t and when it’s needed.
At the same time, irrigation systems must be streamlined, avoiding leaks and using water only for crops we need, eliminating waste.
And encouraging real biodiversity in the vineyards, with systems such as agroforestry, but also soil coverage and microbial action, with two primary outcomes: reducing the evapotranspiration of water from the soil, reducing nitrogen and carbon impoverishment, essentially its loss of fertility, and, at the same time, increasing its water retention capability. Remember that a single extra percentage point of organic matter is capable of retaining a huge quantity of water. A living and active soil is also better able to support plants, breaking down organic matter better and fixing carbon in the soil.
We must not forget that climate change – and thus more frequent rain in the growing season and higher humidity – or, by contrast, prolonged drought-generating abiotic stress to vines – weakens vines and thus requires more frequent action against normal diseases and parasites by winegrowers. It is thus crucial to reconsider the need to grow vines exclusively in suitable areas, approaching an area’s suitability for vines not solely from the point of view of grape quality considerations but first and foremost in economic and working sustainability terms. If an area which was once a good one for winemaking now requires excessive amounts of human action and interference, it is time to take stock. Because whilst, on one hand, there is an area and its traditions to be safeguarded, the flip side of the coin is economic sustainability.
responsibly