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How our producers are navigating climate extremes...

Grape vines have been cultivated for thousands of years, and throughout this time they have continually adapted to changes in weather and climate. Winemakers have always found new ways to manage and work with these uncontrollable elements, both in the vineyard and in the cellar. Some of these methods, like longer ageing, different ageing vessels or chapitalisation have altered wine styles in positive ways, ultimately increasing the accessibility and popularity of wine the last few centuries. 

But the last decade has brought dramatic, lasting changes in weather patterns and the climate they create. Virtually all of our producers suffered from tricky conditions in 2023. And many also in 2022, and 2021 and let’s not even talk about 2020. Most say the extremity of weather events is the biggest challenge, and that they can no longer shrug off losses as bad luck and now expect problems each year. 

It seems every few months our feeds are dominated by dramatic images of vineyards lit by thousands of candles to fend off frost or Hollywood-style footage of wildfires being doused with water. Contrasting tales of too much rain or too little rain, and freezing temperatures or heat-scorched grapes are now a familiar refrain. Our collective hearts break for these hard-working producers, yet we wonder if even the most devoted wine lovers are becoming a bit tone-deaf to the constant din of climate impact stories.

So let’s focus for a bit instead on what is being done, with an emphasis on our producers. There are countless other factors to address, but we want to concentrate on the elements with direct impact on people, our people, our family of winemakers.

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giboulot

Proof In Every Glass

A Burgundy Master

In Burgundy, Emmanuel Giboulot is working with teams of scientists, academics and farmers to evaluate the changes in the local terroir and search for ways to preserve it. 

“There have big changes in last 10 years, we all know this. What I see is more extremes… extreme cold or rain or heat. Nothing is settled. It’s very worrying. We have tried to adapt to the climate, but it is an evolution. One that has become very accelerated.”

Strategies New & Old

The most proactive winemakers are actively embracing climate mitigation tactics both new and old.

Technology has brought new ways to capture carbon in soils, seed clouds against hail, even AI-controlled irrigation. Simpler, no-tech methods like altered canopy management, better clone selection and colder ferments are becoming commonplace among our producers.

Several French appellations have relaxed some of their typically strict rules in order to address climate issues – and forward thinking producers are taking advantage of this flexibility...

Frost

Frost incidents are increasingly common, and often occur later in the season, threatening fragile buds. In the Loire, where early frosts are a now persistent issue, Damien and Coralie Delecheneau of La Grange Tiphaine use two stage pruning - where vines are lightly pruned in winter and again in spring – to delay budding as long as possible in case of late frost.

This method has become popular in many regions, but Coralie says it also has downsides, “We are still experimenting with this, as we think it may increase yields. We leave a few buds at first, and then when frost risk is over we go back and cut again, but we may be are not pruning enough, we saw more grapes and our yields increased too much.” Damien and Coralie have also invested in five gigantic anti-frost wind towers, which they admit were expensive, but the only viable long-term solution to keep frost at bay.

Dedicated followers of our communications might recall Jérôme Bretaudeau of Domaine de Bellevue in Muscadet, who battles deadly frosts with an innovative fil chauffant system that allows heat to be sent along the vine trellis wires. This is another more efficient and forward-thinking (but expensive) alternative to lighting hundreds of candles or burning fires to heat rows.

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Man inspecting grape vines in a field