Climate, grapes, and wine: structure and suitability in a variable and changing climate

Abstract

Climate is a pervasive factor in the success of all agricultural systems, influencing whether a crop is suitable to a given region, largely controlling crop production and quality, and ultimately driving economic sustainability. Climate’s influence on agribusiness is never more evident than with viticulture and wine production where climate is arguably the most critical aspect in ripening fruit to optimum characteristics to produce a given wine style. Any assessment of climate for wine production must examine a multitude of factors that operate over many temporal and spatial scales. Namely climate influences must be considered at the macroscale (synoptic climate) to the mesoscale (regional climate) to the toposcale (site climate) to the microscale (vine row and canopy climate). In addition, climate influences come from both broad structural conditions and singular weather events manifested through many temperature, precipitation, and moisture parameters. To understand climate’s role in growing winegrapes and wine production one must consider 1) the weather and climate structure necessary for optimum quality and production characteristics, 2) the climate suitability to different winegrape cultivars, 3) the climate’s variability in wine producing regions, and 4) the influence of climate change on the structure, suitability, and variability of climate.

DOI:

Publication date: December 3, 2021

Issue: Terroir 2010

Type: Article

Authors

G.V. Jones

Department of Environmental Studies
Southern Oregon University
1250 Siskiyou Blvd
Ashland, Oregon

Contact the author

Keywords

Climate, grapes, wine, temperature, climate change, climate variability

Tags

IVES Conference Series | Terroir 2010

Citation

Related articles…

Significance of factors making Riesling an iconic grape variety

Riesling is the iconic grape variety of Germany and accounts for 23% of the German viticulture acreage, which comprises 45% of the worldwide Riesling plantings. Riesling wines offer a wide array of styles from crisp sparkling wines to highly concentrated and sweet Trockenbeerenauslese or Icewines. However, its thin berry skin makes Riesling more vulnerable to detrimental environmental threats than other white wine varieties.  

Malolactic fermentation in wine production

What influence do these bacteria have on wines? What new bacteria are being studied to carry out this fermentation? Find below articles about malolactic fermentation published in our 3 media (OENO One, IVES Technical Reviews and IVES Conference Series). OENO One...

Metabolomics screening of Vitis sp. interspecific hybrids to select natural ingredients with cosmetic purposes

Introducing natural ingredients using green chemistry practices is a major challenge in cosmetics industry to follow the market trend. Among the plants of cosmetic interest, vine products show a remarkable diversity of natural substances with high potential for the cosmetic and dermatological sectors. To date, research focuses on well-known compounds like E-resveratrol and E-ε-viniferin,

WAC 2022: Abstracts are available on IVES Conference Series

In order to disseminate the scientific results presented during the WAC 2022 , the organizers have decided to share the abstracts of the oral communications and posters with Open Access on IVES Conference Series. The fifth edition of the International Conference...

Winemaking techniques and wine tasting methods at the end of the Middle Ages

Les pratiques de vinification et de dégustation du vin sont souvent perçues, à travers un discours marketing très puissant, sous l’angle d’une tradition millénaire qui perdure depuis le Moyen Âge. En Bourgogne, il est courant de rattacher les racines de ces pratiques à l’activité des institutions ecclésiastiques qui possédaient d