Weather always plays a role in wine, and one of the things that wine lovers appreciate is vintage variations — the fruit concentration, acidity and other qualities that reflect each year’s patterns of sun and rain.
It’s true that the flavour and texture of many wines are influenced by winemaking decisions, which can include adding acid, sugar (to increase alcohol) and tannins, as well as fermentation and barrel-aging techniques. Some popular brands are blended to be as consistent as possible year after year.
But vintage variations in wines subjected to less manipulation remind us that we’re drinking something that reflects the specific weather conditions under which the grapes grew.
Long-term climate change is something else, of course, and it’s starting to attract of lot of attention in the wine world. Whatever their causes, broad changes in climate will have significant effects on viticulture and wine. If annual temperatures rise the two degrees predicted for many parts of the wine world, areas that are marginal for viticulture will become either more or less grape-friendly.
That could be good news for regions now on the chilly side of marginal. Niagara could conceivably benefit from fewer cold growing seasons. Areas that are really marginal, like Prince Edward County, would slide into the more viable category. Of course, as climate changes, wineries will have to plant grape varieties more suited to the new conditions. Niagara’s Pinot Noir and Riesling could be pushed to their limits if temperatures consistently rise too much.
In France, Champagne could get too warm to produce the kind of wine needed to make the famous fizz, and Bordeaux might start producing wines that Bordeaux-lovers wouldn’t recognize.
At the other end of the spectrum, some well-known wine regions could become too hot for viticulture. Think of parts of South Africa (like Swartland), Australia (Barossa), Chile, and California, not to mention Spain, Italy and Greece.
A series of hot summers such as the one Europe experienced last year will call wine production into question in many regions. Droughts in Spain in the mid-1990s forced a change in wine law to permit irrigation. But when I was in Châteauneuf-du-Pape’s 40 C heat last July, winemakers looked at their stressed vines and wondered what they would do if it happened regularly. There have no ready source of water, even if they were permitted to irrigate their vines.
You can see the problem in microcosm in California’s Sonoma Valley. It includes cool districts in the south, such as Russian River Valley, where varieties like Pinot Noir flourish, and warm areas in the north, like Alexander Valley, known for its big red wines. A rise in temperature across the board could push all Sonoma’s microclimates up a notch, making its south too warm for Pinot Noir and, conceivably, parts of its north too hot for quality wine production.
It’s not as if climate change hasn’t affected viticulture before. The current distribution of grapes in France, for instance, is quite different from the pattern a few hundred years ago. But that’s little consolation for producers who have to face weird weather in the short term and prospects of planting new varieties in the future.
And consumers, of course, might have to adjust to jammy, blockbuster reds from Bordeaux and Syrah from Germany. Still, don’t hold your breath waiting for Ottawa to emerge as a wine region.
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Speaking of annual variations, 2002 was excellent in Ontario, and here are four cool-climate wines and styles that show the vintage well.