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Howard W. Hewitt

~ … The "W" stands for wine!

Howard W. Hewitt

Tag Archives: climate change

Winemakers face climate change

25 Thursday May 2017

Posted by Howard in France, Newspaper Column 2017, Oregon, Uncategorized

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climate change, Gamay, Syrah, vineyards, winemakers adapt to climate change

grape-sense-logo“It can be a whim or a wallop that can have an impact on the international wine world and what you are drinking in your glass at home.”

That’s how I opened the last Grape Sense column a couple of weeks ago. I suggested the whim of more Oregon winemakers looking at Gamay as a response to market and establishing some diversity beyond the state’s outstanding Pinot Noir.

But in this column, let’s think about the wham – when winemakers are given no choice or see catastrophic change coming right at them, they act like any farmer. Winemakers are considering changes because of climate change. Forget the politics of climate change, it’s not even relevant in this discussion. Many vineyard owners across the world believe they must anticipate warmer growing seasons. That’s a fact and not a political statement.

California’s Napa Valley winegrowers have taken the issue seriously and been looking at climate change’s impact since 2010. Napa Valley Vintners joined forces with the Climate Study Task Force led by Dr. Dan Cayan and his renowned team of climate scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at U.C. San Diego.

The task force reported early in 2011 that Napa had warmed slightly in recent decades but not as much as reported in some wine-related, climate change stories.

Anecdotally, there are French vineyard owners who have noted their harvests have moved from October to September. Temperature determines what grapes are planted and even more so when those grapes are harvested.

There are studies related to or performed for the wine industry that suggest temperature increases of 2-3 degrees over the past 50 years. That may not seem like a lot but it has many in the wine world thinking 20 or 30 years down the road for what it means to their vines.

In the short term, warmer temps mean earlier harvests and can be a challenge for winemakers to control alcohol content.

In the longer term increasing temperatures will impact what grapes vineyards will best produce. The conversation and concern has even made its way, quietly, to the stodgy and highly-regulated areas of Burgundy and Beaujolais in France.

The news really caught my eye when reading that some growers in Beaujolais and even southern Burgundy were experimenting with a few vines of Syrah. One story even referred to it as a ‘secret’ experimentation with Syrah. During a visit to Burgundy in 2016, I learned firsthand how grounded the Burgundians are in not just Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, but to their archaic laws, traditions, and way of life.

I ate in some of the best restaurants in Beaune, the heart of Burgundy, and noticed seldom did wine lists include wines beyond Burgundy.

To even speak of Syrah seems sacrilege after visiting this wonderful wine area. Still, Burgundian winemakers are making big bucks. Burgundy is the most expensive wine in the world. Frankly, some of the lower end reds I tasted during a week-long visit simply weren’t very good.

A little dirty secret of some areas of the wine universe, and certainly not Burgundy, is Syrah and even Merlot has found its way into thinner Pinot Noir wines to add body and structure.

While the Burgundians would shudder at such a suggestion, it’s not much of a stretch to see wine regions begin to accept the idea that some Pinot may need a little more body. Pinot Noir is very difficult to grow. Pinot grapes are small and thin-skinned. Pinot will not survive and thrive in a high-heat environment.

Politically, you can believe in climate change or not. In the wine world, climate change has winemakers in California and France thinking about the future of their industry.

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A whim to a wallop for wine changes

09 Tuesday May 2017

Posted by Howard in Newspaper Column 2017, Uncategorized

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climate change, Gamay Noir, Oregon

It can be a whim or a wallop that can have an impact on the international wine world and what you are drinking in your glass at home.

Whims are as much a part of wine today as ever before with marketers and smart winemakers chasing younger demographics with snappy packaging, inventive packaging, and in hot pursuit of the millennial palate.

grape-sense-logoDo those young wine drinkers want a sweeter, more fruit-forward taste? Maybe the hipster generation just wants sometime different – a new grape from a new region?

A few recent notes out of Oregon suggest a whim that might prove a powerful one for those bold enough to change. Oregon is all about pinot noir and they do it really, really well. The vineyard numbers are something like 80-90 percent committed to pinot.

But there are a handful of estates producing Gamay Noir. Gamay, you may recall is the great grape of the French Beaujolais wines. You may also recall it’s the ‘not so great grape” of those wines. No grape takes a bigger rap than Gamay and that’s mostly because of the seasonal Beaujolais Nouveau. Nouveau is harvested, bottled, and sold. It was a marketing ploy that worked about bringing the freshest vintage to market but simply was never very good.

Fortunately, there have been efforts in recent years to highlight the Beaujolais Grand Cru wines. These wines are specific to terroir, aged and very affordable. Nice Gamay wine is lighter on the palate, like pinot. Gamay has a distinguishable fruit palate, like Pinot. Gamay wines are indeed something new to the vast majority of U.S. wine consumers.

There are a few other pockets of Gamay around. I tasted Gamay at a couple of spots in upper state Michigan in recent years. I recall Chateau Grand Traverse offering a very nice Gamay Noir for less than $20.

WillaKenzie and Brick House are two Oregon producers getting ink for their Gamay efforts.

The wines aren’t going to be easy to find in nearby markets, with the possible exception of Michigan Gamay in Northern Indiana shops perhaps. But Gamay is a good thought to store in the cellar of your mind as something worthy to try and to share with friends,

The bit wallop hitting the wine world is climate change. Syrah in Burgundy? That’s for the next Grape Sense,

 

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