Climate, Weather & Wine
Before you even taste, see, or smell a wine, you can often tell a lot about the wine by knowing what climate it’s from - and even moreso when you know where, specifically those grapes grew. Perhaps the largest influence on the final wine is not necessarily how the winemaker produces, matures, or bottles the wine, but the weather and climate it comes from.
Climate is the average levels of temperature, sunlight, and rainfall in a region (ahem, that’s why we say we’re in a climate crisis because those averages are quite literally off the charts).
Weather, on the other hand, is what happens in that region day-to-day, or year-to-year, and looks at specific events that happen.
Climatic influences
latitude
This is the most important factor for a wine region. As you likely learned in geography 101 (or just world experience), the loser you are to the equator, the hotter it gets. Furthermore - the further you move away from the equator, the colder it gets.
Map of wine growing regions and location in respect to the equator
In the map above, the purple parts highlight popular wine growing regions. These areas fall either 30 to 50 degrees north or south of the equator respectively. Anywhere outside of this range is simply too hot or too cold for vines to thrive in. Fun fact, the areas in between 30 degrees north and south of the equator, are actually the “coffee bean belt”, where almost all Arabica coffee beans are grown.
altitude
So you’re within those wine growing regions, but say it’s a very warm region, like South Africa, inland Spain or Argentina. The higher altitudes of these locales actually provide a moderating effect, cooling the overall climate down, than say the climate at the same latitude but at lower altitude.
seas
Like that sea breeze in your hair? Refreshing and just what you need on a hot day at the beach. Same goes for vineyards in warmer latitudes. Ocean currents, sea breezes also provide cooler climates for vineyards in places like South Africa. On the other hand, north of the equator in Northern Europe benefit from warm ocean currents.
rivers
This one is wild to me (probably because I’ve never thought about rivers and river rocks often, TBH). Rivers take longer to warm up and cool down than land. Who cares? In cooler regions near rivers, they can provide a warming influence and protect against frost - allowing more time for grapes to ripen (the same for the inverse for warmer regions getting cooler influences from rivers). Rivers, being the utilitarian body of water they are, also reflect sunlight - which is especially helpful for cooler climates further from the equator.
air
No brainer, right? of course air impacts grape growing. But how? In warmer coastal areas - I see you Napa Valley and Calistoga! - cool air from the seas and mountains come ashore or down from mountains at night, offering the grapes a reprieve from the heat they’ve endured throughout the day.
cloud, mist, fog
Similar to air, cloud, mist and fog provide a cooling influence to warmer climates. Clouds and fog can block sunlight for a period of time. While mist actually is integral for sweeter grapes that develop botrytis/noble rot.
mountains
Mountains act as a barrier from a lot of cooling elements like clouds, ocean winds or rain. This allows for a longer growing season due to sunny summers and dry autumns.
slope/aspect
One thing to know about vineyards - they love a good, steep, equator-facing slope/hill. Even if further away from the equator in a cool climate, like Mosel, Germany, or Alsace, France, having a vineyard on a steep, slope facing South provide ample heat and light for grapes to carry on.
Weather influences
cool vintages
I don’t mean like “cool” vintage, dude, way, but in the wow this year was unusually COLD! - way. For example, the 2016 vintage was a cool vintage for Burgundy, France and Argentina. A cool vintage typically means that the vines were STRUGGLING that year - so you can expect high acidity, low sugars and a lack of signature aromas.
hail and frost
Heavy hail storms and frost during the Spring are a vineyards worst nightmare - often damaging or destroying a vineyards entire annual crop.
hot vintages
A hot vintage is when the growing season is hotter than normal or the sun is untypically bright. In these cases, grapes can develop uncharacteristic dried-fruit aromas (prune juice, no thanks), or are even damaged by sunburn. 2017 was an awful vintage for Napa Valley, California. A heatwave struck the area that year (with temps over 100 degrees), only to be followed by a string of devastating fires that obliterated 250,000+ acres and damaged wineries, causing wineries to lose part of, or all of their 2017 vintages.
drought
When there’s no rain for an abnormal period of time, grapes are unable to ripen and sometimes die.
Final note about climate/weather
Unless you’ve been living under a rock - climate records have shown a sustained increase of air and ocean temperatures that will increase. But not only that! We’re experiencing more extreme weather events. As you can imagine, this keeps winemakers and vineyards on their toes since this has a huge impact on grape growing. As our globe is warming, we’ll see more and more producers adapting to and mitigating these wild weather events and effects of climate change (we’re even seeing Canada become a burgeoning wine-making area!). The next few decades of wine production will definitely have some interesting vintages and overall effects on the industry as a whole.
