Wine climate adaptation overview
- Climate change is reshaping traditional wine-growing regions across Europe
- Producers must adapt because most growers remain geographically anchored
- Excessive heat and extreme weather threaten grape quality and yields
- Irrigation, altitude shifts and resilient varieties can support adaptation
- Climate adaptation raises costs while maintaining wine quality grows harder
Climate change is likely to have a transformative effect on the wine sector.
Previous studies have suggested that around 90% of coastal and low-lying wine regions in traditional locations such as Spain, Italy, Greece and southern California could be at risk of disappearing by the time the century is out. Meanwhile, places like the Netherlands, Denmark and Belgium could become more suitable for wine production, according to the study by INRAE and various other French organisations. As such, change is very much afoot.
Yet wine producers can’t just up and leave – most are fundamentally tied to the locality in which they produce. Therefore, as growing conditions change, they must adapt.
How climate change affects wine
A certain level of stress is needed to produce good quality wines, explains Ignacio Ricarte Sanchez, secretary general of EU wine trade organisation Comité Européen des Entreprises Vins (CEEV).
“Moderate stress – normally associated with water or some nutrients in soil – forces grapevines to shift their energy away from growing shoots and leaves and focus on ripening smaller, more flavourful grapes. It also helps to develop a stronger root system that will help the vine to better adapt to future problems.”
Nevertheless, when this stress is too high, the level of quality cannot be maintained.
The pressure on wine is not just from heat, but the repetition of extreme weather events such as frost and heat in the middle of winter. “If I was a plant, I would be mad”, says Sanchez.
Many believe that after 2°C of warming, grape growers will be obliged to change their system of production in order to maintain the same wine quality, explains Sanchez.
Despite climate pressures, the demands of the market can mean that certain varieties will be produced under significant pressure. For years, the popularity of certain wines – pinot noir, for example – has meant that producers continue to grow them in areas that may not be the most adequate for them.
Planting pinot noir in an area with too much sun may make it more difficult to maintain the same level of quality.
However, the wine industry is now looking to choose varieties that can adapt better to the climate in which they are being grown, Sanchez explains.
How to protect wine from climate change
While wine regions are changing, and are predicted to change even more, wine production often cannot simply move. It is “anchored to a territory”, Sanchez explains.
The vast majority of wine companies – around 99% – are SMEs, and many are family-owned businesses. Most are not interested in moving.
This means that producers will instead need to do their best to mitigate the effects of climate on existing crops, adapting to their new reality.
Introducing irrigation is one way to achieve this. There are many areas in Europe in which there is currently no irrigation, explains Sanchez. While the vine doesn’t need a lot of water, as a plant it naturally needs some.
If there is adequate rainfall, the plant will be fine. But if rainfall is inadequate, it will struggle. Simply adding irrigation to the production process may help producers to maintain not only the wine’s quantity but quality as well.
The wine sector is used to lower yields, says Sanchez. Yet an excessively dry grape can mean that the style of the wine will change.
Many producers want to expand to production, and some have moved to higher altitudes, where the different conditions make production easier to manage.
Higher altitudes can be beneficial for wine because of lower temperatures and greater thermal amplitude (the difference between highest and lowest temperatures), according to wine retailer Decántalo.
Adaptation comes at a cost
While the wine sector does have the tools to adapt, these tools are often very costly. Even installing irrigation can add significant costs to production.
It’s difficult for growers to maintain the same quality from year to year, says Sanchez, due to the increased management costs that this necessitates.
And as the climate keeps changing, the profile of wine will keep changing as well, he stresses. While some types of wine, such as champagne, are believed to have a better profile now than thirty years in the past, this may change again as temperatures shift.
Growing conditions for wine are not the same as they once were. And producers must keep up.
