Climate change is changing the flavor of French wine

RichardFlack · October 10, 2019, 2:46pm

Nomination for post of the year?

Henry_Kiichli · October 10, 2019, 3:40pm

Howard_Cooper · October 10, 2019, 4:18pm

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.

My sense is that as of right now climate change is a net benefit for some wine regions and a net detriment in other wine regions.

For example, for Burgundy and German wines so far IMHO climate change has been a positive. Wines are getting ripe enough in most vintages (not the case prior to 1980 or so) and the need to chaptalize in Burgundy is much reduced to eliminated (Chaptalization in German wines is too complicated to discuss in this thread). Certainly there can be overripe vintages (just like there used to be underripe vintages and vintages with lots of rot (warmer vintages allow for picking prior to the fall rains in many cases so less rot)).