Do you know what drives wine quality and wine taste? A new study reveals the secret recipe for superior wine quality
As the world grapples with climate change, Bordeaux’s wines may be reaping some benefits. New research decodes the relationship between weather patterns and wine superiority.
Wine quality is known to fluctuate annually, but what factors contribute to an exceptional vintage?
Researchers revealed in a recent study published on October 11 in iScience that climatic conditions significantly influence the grade of wine.
After examining half a century of critic ratings for Bordeaux wines and correlating them with respective yearly weather patterns, it emerged that vintages from warmer years with increased winter precipitation and abbreviated growing periods tend to be superior.
Interestingly, such climatic conditions are anticipated to be more common due to global climate shifts.
“Weather drives wine quality and wine taste,” comments first author Andrew Wood of the University of Oxford. “We found evidence that temperature and precipitation effects occur throughout the year—from bud break, while the grapes are growing and maturing, during harvesting, and even overwinter when the plant is dormant.”
It’s intriguing that wines from the same vineyard, nurtured on identical terrain and produced using similar techniques, can have varying quality across years. The role of annual weather shifts in affecting wine excellence has always been a topic of curiosity.
A more recent area of interest is the potential influence of global climate changes on wine quality. While we recognize that both short-term weather and long-term climate patterns can affect crops, the connection between climate alterations and the quality of farm produce remains largely uncharted.
Do Warmer Temperatures and Wet Winters Really Boost Wine Quality?
To delve deeper into the relationship between climate conditions and wine caliber, the team combined intricate climate data with Bordeaux wine ratings from 1950 to 2020 in southwestern France.
Their exploration spanned both the overarching trends in Bordeaux and the nuances within specific Bordeaux areas known as “appellations d’origine contrôlée” (AOCs) — distinct zones with set grape farming and winemaking protocols.
They then employed analytical models to see if elements like the duration of seasons or fluctuations in temperature and rainfall had any bearing on wine quality.
Diverging from prior research that primarily centered on growing season climates, this study also ventured into the effects of off-season winter weather on dormant grape vines.
Wood points out, “Perennial crops like grapes are there all the time, and so things that happen outside of the growing season can also impact the wine.”
Bordeaux was the focal point of the researchers’ study due to its unique dependency on rainwater for vineyard irrigation and its extensive archive of wine ratings. They utilized historical merchant ratings from 1950 to 2020 for the Bordeaux region and evaluations from critics between 2014 to 2020 for the specific AOCs.
The process of wine evaluation, while inherently subjective with critics aware of each wine’s origin, still often reaches a consensus regarding the distinction between “high” and “low” quality wines. The researchers posited that this perceived quality can serve as an objective metric to track long-term crop evolutions.
The analysis indicated a positive trajectory in Bordeaux wine ratings from 1950 to 2020. Possible reasons include changes in the region’s climate, technological advancements in winemaking, or vintners adjusting methods in line with evolving consumer tastes.
Wood mentions, “The trend, whether that’s driven by the preferences of wine critics or the general population, is that people generally prefer stronger wines which age for longer and give you richer, more intense flavors, higher sweetness, and lower acidity.
“And with climate change—generally, we are seeing a trend across the world that with greater warming, wines are getting stronger.”
Furthermore, the study revealed that climatic conditions influenced wine excellence year-round, not solely during the grape-growing phase. Top-notch wines typically correlated with seasons characterized by cold, moist winters; mild, rainy springs; sweltering, arid summers; and brisk, parched autumns.
As climate change introduces such weather variations in Bordeaux, the team anticipates that the region’s wine quality will likely enhance in tandem with these shifts.
Wood notes, “With the predicted climates of the future, given that we are more likely to see these patterns of warmer weather and less rainfall during the summer and more rainfall during the winter, the wines are likely to continue to get better into the future.”
Yet, this projection holds until water scarcity becomes a challenge.
In Wood’s words, “The problem in scenarios where it gets really hot is water: if plants don’t have enough, they eventually fail, and when they fail, you lose everything.
“But the general idea or consensus is that the wines will continue to get better up to the point where they fail.”
While the research zoomed in on Bordeaux, the findings might have implications for other wine-producing regions as well. The team’s future endeavors include verifying this hypothesis.
Moreover, the same methodologies might be adapted to assess how annual climate variations and global warming influence other long-standing crops, like cocoa or coffee, provided comprehensive quality data exists.
Source: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.107954
Image Credit: iStock