Michel Chapoutier, a celebrated Hermitage producer in the northern Rhone, disagrees. Global warming may be making his wines more popular, but he believes it has come at a price.
Traditionally, the grapes in his vineyards could be harvested with the sugars and other flavors ripening simultaneously, he says, with alcohol levels averaging 12%. Today, he says, the sugars arrive too quickly, before the other flavors. Chapoutier says he must leave his grapes hanging longer on the vine waiting for full ripeness, which results in alcohol levels averaging 14%. To a California vintner, this might seem acceptable, but to Chapoutier, it is evidence of a buildup of greenhouse gases in the air and a warming climate.
"I'm nervous about the future," Chapoutier says. "Yes, we have more and more good vintages now, but we have to choose between vegetal wines or ones that taste like jam."
"The old system of wine production in Europe, the notion of \o7terroir\f7, is now questionable," Seguin says. "We must either do things to make the old system adapt to the new climate, striving to keep the classical qualities of wine by making changes in how we manage vineyards and make wine. Or, we must become like the New World, changing the vineyards to grow whatever grape variety is right for that climate and planting vineyards in new places."
The heat wave in Europe in 2003 sounded the alarm, Seguin says, becoming the example of the future. "Those are very different wines. Not bad wines, but very different," he says. "It made it possible to move from thinking about global warming to doing something about it."
And California? Jones' research shows that 50 years ago, the Central Valley's Lodi region had temperatures on par with what Napa experiences today. If current warming trends continue, in another 50 years Napa's climate could be as hot as Lodi's is today. And the Central Valley could be too hot to grow any kind of wine grapes. In 2049, the regions most suitable for high-quality wine production, according to Jones, may dot a narrow strip of the coast.
Noah Diffenbaugh, a climate scientist at Purdue Climate Change Research Center, projects that by the end of the century, human-driven climate warming could reduce the areas suitable for wine production in the U.S. by 81%. Within those territories, optimal regions for producing the highest quality wines would be half what they are today.
