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A team of researchers from Oxford University has studied the changing climate and wine quality using critics' ratings of Bordeaux wines over the past 70 years. The study highlighted the role of warm summers and wet winters. The team argues that climate change is likely to lead to improved wine quality. However, this is only until the drought reaches a tipping point. Years with warmer temperatures, higher winter rainfall and earlier, shorter grape growing seasons produce higher quality wines. These conditions are expected to become more common due to climate change.
The team used modelling to investigate whether wine quality is affected by weather factors such as the length of the season, the fluctuations and shifts in temperature and precipitation. The results were published in the journal iScience under the title "Seasonal Climate Impacts Wine Quality in Bordeaux". The study looks at both Bordeaux as a region and the year-to-year variations in wine quality in each appellation.
"We found evidence that temperature and rainfall influence wine quality throughout the year: From bud break to grape growth and ripening to harvest and even overwintering when the plant is dormant," said Andrew Wood, a PhD student in the Department of Biology at Oxford University and leader of the project.
"Given the climate predicted for the future and the fact that we are more likely to see these patterns with warmer weather, less rainfall in summer and more rainfall in winter, the wines will continue to get better," Wood added. However, there is a tipping point. Because if the water becomes scarcer, the vines will die.
Bordeaux was chosen as a test case because the vines are not irrigated and because the region has long-term records of wine ratings by critics. These were subjective to a certain extent, but nevertheless recognised. Wine merchants' ratings from 1950 to 2020 for the region as a whole were used, as well as wine critics' ratings from 2014 to 2020 for the individual AOCs. The researchers plan to see if the results are transferable to other wine regions before studying the impact of annual weather fluctuations and climate change on other perennial crops such as cocoa and coffee, provided the long-term quality records are available.
(ru / Drinks Business)