The Great Scramble
As the planet gets hotter, species need new habitats suited for them. Fish, birds, and mammals migrate, sometimes quite quickly, but for plants in the wild, they cannot spread their seeds and populate new distant terrain easily.
For cultivated crops like wine, growers are scrambling to respond to current changes that affect their crops today affecting the flavor of their wines. They also have to prepare for the future.
Connecting people with the land, climate, and wine
Kimberly A. Nicholas writing for Weatherunder Ground considers the connections between the climate, the land, and the people with wine growing.
Winegrapes are especially sensitive to climate. The taste experience of wine reflects the environmental conditions of the place where it is grown, a feature valued by consumers and captured by the French notion of terroir. By noticing how climate affects the wine, we can learn more about how climate change is affecting agriculture worldwide and how people are responding to those changes.
How are growers responding?
When it comes to climate change, winegrowers and winemakers have many options to adapt. Growers are experimenting with new wine regions, cooler locations within existing regions (such as moving from warmer valleys to cooler hillsides), trying new varieties better suited to warmer conditions and farming methods that provide more shade to cool the fruit. Winemakers can also use approaches including alcohol removal and acid addition to improve wine balance.
Check out the article, How Wine Connects Climate, Land, and People.
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