Climate change is changing the flavor of French wine

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2019/09/wine-harvest-dates-earlier-climate-change/

Interesting they have records that old.

What they found was a stark record of climate change. During the Middle Ages and beyond, the records show short stretches of warmth and occasional super-hot years like 1540. But since the late 1980s, the warmth has ratcheted up. In the past 16 years alone, eight were among the earliest harvest dates ever recorded.

1540 was an Alfert year. Rolland killed it

I believe The Gilded Sage is the only person around that may have extensive knowledge of the wines of 1540. Hopefully he’ll contribute to this thread!

Someone forwarded the underlying research to me not long ago, and it’s ingenious research. I thought I’d launched a thread, but I can’t find it.

They checked the data on Burgundy harvest dates that had been compiled a century or so ago and compared the compilation to the underlying records and found the compilation – on which people had relied – to be quite inaccurate. They then compared the corrected harvest dates since the 1300s with three or four centuries worth of detailed meteorological data compiled in Paris and found they were closely correlated since the Paris records commenced, which strongly suggests that harvest dates were dictated by the weather, not arbitrary fiat. They also found good correlations between the Burgundy harvest timing and some in Switzerland.

The most fascinating thing is that there were these super hot vintages with the earliest-ever harvests in the 1300s and 1500s.

The best years of the first millennium are celebrated in the lyrics of the famous Chanson de Rolland.

Uncle Rollo, descendant of Duke Rollo of Normandy, went medieval all over that shit! Mega-Purple back then was called the Blood Eagle. A true Berserker.

[berserker.gif] [berserker.gif]

Excellent tie in to viking lore and the conquest of Normandy by the Danes. They probably WERE interested in higher alcohol wines, and probably WERE focused on a more hedonistic lifestyle. It’s all coming together!

Yes, grasshopper.

Did you read my recent legal article on the Knights Templar and P3?

Just wait, Robert. In another 10-15 years P3 will be your lot every night you drink before retiring.

Is Ovid a recent bastardization of Oden?

Not bastardization, but metamorphosis. Or Berserkization.

Huh, 10-15?

I have to admit, at 53 I already get up to P at 3.

And eat. Damn I’m always hungry.

Wait until you are 64!!! [wow.gif]

Yea, but you retired and have nothing better to do

Not much on actual taste though. Mention of alcohol, but also acknowledgement that winemaker / consumer preference might be a factor. (No, I’m not a climate change denier).
I’d be interested in people’s comments on wine taste over say the last few decades. My sense is that climate change gives potential for riper fruit but then it’s up to winemakers what they do with that.

I don’t mean to discount the impact of critics’ and consumers’ preferences, but warmer weather can lead to sugars to rise before the fruit is physiologically ripe – before the flavors have developed to the right point. As a result, in warm years and climates, winemakers sometimes delay harvesting to obtain physiological ripeness, at the cost of harvesting at very high sugar levels. In other words, the picking decision isn’t entirely a matter of the winemaker’s preferred style.

That’s very helpful John (Im not much of a chemist, more maths and physics). Your point about no choice for the winemaker is well taken.
I guess to some extent, we have a chicken and egg situation. If consumers loathed the new style wines then wouldn’t demand have shifted to other regions.
To me, the interesting thing (aside from whats happened to some Bordeaux) is any impact on regions like Mosel or Chablis.

Well done sir. Obscure, apropos and funny.

Craig is quite the chansonnier.