The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry...

So the saying goes. I intended to do an incredibly long hike today and instead got rained out. Being at the mercy of the weather, I thought some about another recurring theme in yesterday's conversations with the wine makers- weather and in particular global warming. Winemakers and farmers are always at the mercy of the weather and do their best to not fight against it but, rather, to work with it. Each harvest faces the same challenges- the grapes are subject to the many microclimates within the region- shifts in temperature, where the light hits it, whether the season has been hot and dry or cool and wet etc. It is the task of the wine maker to get a high quality wine out of what mother nature has given it to work with. Perhaps because of this necessity to adapt to the weather's whimsy, wine makers and farmers have been planning for years on how to respond to climate change within their industry. On average, the growing season temperature in 24 of the major wine growing regions has risen in the past 50 years by at least 1.26 degrees Celsius.  For some grapes and locations this had boded well-- longer and warmer growing seasons means longer time spent on the vine creating bolder, richer, and higher alcoholic wines. However, these tidings will eventually end and we could see these regions becoming incapable of producing the wines that they have built their livelihoods on.

The article hyperlinked above also stated something that has caused concern for many Italian winegrowers and makers: by 2050 wine production in these regions could decrease by almost 70%. The climates created by these shifts would make it less than ideal, if not downright impossible, to grow the varietals these regions are famous for. Furthermore, you know that whole idea of a wine having an identity that I spoke about in the last post? That gets the trashcan as the soil will inevitably change its composition due to a shift in sunlight, rainfall, etc.

Nature has a funny way of balancing it out-- regions such as England, Tazmania, China, or even Brazil could feasibly begin to produce world class wines due to shifts in climates and microclimates that would make the typical grape varietals flourish in areas that had previously been too harsh. As the article states, "These geographic shifts will keep the wine flowing, but may bring new pressures on wildlife and other natural resources such as water." We already clear large swaths of rainforest for soy beans and lumber. God knows what we'll do to plant vines in order to get more booze. The regions once blessed by nature will have to resort to intense irrigation in order for the grapes to get water; an already heavily hailed wine region, Piemonte will have to get more creative with their methods; all in all this will increase already high prices.

For the moment, Piemonte and Northern Italy in general have been hitting a sweet spot with the current temperatures but how long can it last? While they have been dealing with close to ideal conditions that produce wines of ideal balance between acids, sugars, and tannins, this will be subject to change in the coming decades. There have already been effects felt by the growers this season; not just in Italy but in France. Two of the winemakers I spoke with yesterday brought up the increased hailstorms this season in certain regions; Both Bordeaux and Champagne had a horrible season this past year due to heavy hailstorms brought about by a shift in the climate. It takes a lot to get Bordeaux, the undisputed kings of wine marketing, to admit that they didn't have such a great vintage. (I like to refer to them as the Guitar Center of the wine industry: just as every other week at Guitar Center produces a SALE OF THE CENTURY, Bordeaux year in and year out produces the GREATEST VINTAGE YET)

I suppose all of this is a different approach to stating what should be the obvious: something should have been done a long time ago and must be done now. This part, admittedly, is outside my area of expertise but there have been plenty of those who have written far better insights into the problem and many have produced possible solutions. The saying vino veritas couldn't be truer in this sense; once again the grapes are telling us a story and it's saying AY YO CAN SOMEONE DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS WEATHER SHEESH. In less curt way, "The romans said 'in wine there is truth'...the truth now is that the earth's climate is changing much faster than the wine business, and it is advantageous to for the wine industry to be proactive in assessing the impacts."(found at bottom of article)

Well, hopefully tomorrow I'll get to go on my hike and take pictures of all the great landscape in the area. Until then, goodnight...