The SW Summary: On the impact of climate change, how bats benefit the vineyard, the need for greater transparency in Champagne, and more
Climate change: Catastrophes, concerns, and a call to action
The effects of climate change are increasingly being felt across the world. As reported in EuroNews, 2023 saw a historic low in global wine production. Total volumes declined by 10 percent in the EU, marking the second-lowest recorded volume of wine since the turn of the century. Whilst climate change is not entirely to blame for the decline, experts say that global warming and increasingly volatile weather events are a significant contributing factor.
Production levels in Europe were hampered by either excessive rainfall, leading to mildew and floods, or severe drought or wildfires, mostly experienced in southern Europe. Italy alone saw a 23 percent drop in productivity due to heavy rainfall, suffering from mildew and flood and hail damage. Spain too experienced a significant decline of over 20 percent year on year and parts of the country, notably Catalonia, continue to suffer from a drought emergency.
Late spring frosts this year have caused damage across many of Europe’s largest wine-producing regions, including France and Spain, reports Meininger’s. Just as winemakers in Chablis, France, were recovering from the late April frosts, they got hit by a supercell thunderstorm with hail in early May. The storm affected roughly half of the appellation, resulting in crop losses and floods in wineries.
Over in the southern hemisphere, torrential rains have been wreaking havoc in the south of Brazil since the end of April. As of mid-May, it is estimated that the catastrophic weather has killed at least 100 people and displaced 160,000. In Meininger’s Lucia Porto reports on the damage to the country’s vineyards. Around 80% of Brazilian wine production takes place in the valleys of Taquari, Central and Serra Gaúcha, all three of which were the first regions to be hit. Landslides have taken “everything in their path with them: trees, stones, mud, vineyards, cars, houses, and people.” Vineyards have been ripped from the ground and the full extent of the damage remains to be assessed, with more losses expected. Read the full article here.
Adverse weather events are nothing new, but the frequency and volatility of chaotic weather patterns are on the incline. Whilst such catastrophic climate events highlight the urgent need for climate action, alarmism alone won’t help. We need to focus on collaboration, innovation and action to deliver on ambitious, long-term climate mitigation and adaptation strategies.
New EU project to fund development of new disease-resistant grape varieties
In a bid to promote more sustainable viticulture in the EU, INRAE, France’s National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment, recently launched a project to help growers reduce their reliance on chemical pesticides. As the press release shares, the four-year Horizon Europe funded GrapeBreed4IPM project brings together over 20 partners from seven countries to develop disease-resistant varieties adapted to local conditions. The project will also study consumer perceptions of the new varieties and their resulting wines.
GrapeBreed4IPM also focuses on promoting integrated pest management (IPM). This is typically defined as a broad-based, common-sense approach to pest management that integrates both chemical and non-chemical practices, with the aim of reducing the reliance on pesticides. The project will provide farmers and winegrowers with best practices and guidelines for IPM to help them manage their vineyards in adherence with European sustainability standards.
The press release outlines the five key objectives of the project:
- “Co-design a shared approach with stakeholders along the value chain in different European regions.
- Lead in-depth research for a better understanding of the molecular basis behind vulnerability and resistance of grapevine to pathogens and how it interacts with its environment.
- Develop traditional breeding programmes for new disease-resistant varieties in partnership with local stakeholders.
- Lead research to develop emblematic varieties that maintain traditional characteristics in wine but are also disease resistant.
- Design and share decision-making tools and best practices to optimise growing practices adapted to resistant varieties.”
How bats benefit the vineyard
It’s very likely that bats aren’t the first thing that come to mind when thinking about how to boost grape yields. However, as Kathleen Willcox explains in the drinks business, the role of bats in the vineyard is “under appreciated”. Apparently, these upside-down hanging hairless creatures can boost grape yields, lower disease risk and help reduce the use of chemicals.
Bats are skilled at hunting bugs, largely thanks to their ability to navigate at night by acoustic orientation. Curious about the potential of bats for natural pest and disease management in the vineyard, Matt Fowles, CEO at Fowles Wine in Victoria, Australia, decided to turn his vineyard into a “wine-bat lab.” The study, led by a team of researchers from the University of New England (UNE), set out to determine whether bats have an appetite for grape-destroying moths.
The results were promising. Bats “consume up to 100 percent of their body mass in insects every night. That means a colony of 100 bats weighing 10 grams apiece could gobble up 1 kilo of insects a night.” This could result in huge cost savings and a reduced need for chemical interventions across vineyards. The study is now being expanded across the country to gather further data. Similar studies are underway in France and England.
By eating moths bats not only reduce pests in the vineyard, but they also prevent the diseases that moths can bring. Dr Czenze from UNE notes how “there are so many benefits to safeguarding native vegetation. Bats are a perfect example of how preserving the surrounding environment may affect a vineyard positively on many fronts, from reducing pest insects, to increasing biodiversity, to decreasing a reliance on chemicals.”
Bats aren’t the silver bullet for sustainable viticulture, but they can play an important role in integrated pest management in the vineyard. Read the full article here.
Champagne needs more transparency
Only 4 percent of vineyards in Champagne are certified organic. In The Globe and Mail, Christine Sismondo explains how the region’s dependence on pesticides is rooted in history. The lack of workers in the post World War II economy resulted in growers turning to chemicals to resurrect the vineyards. “It was called les Trente Glorieuses, or the 30 years of glory, because the chemicals meant that yields were growing over 250 per cent year over year, so they were able to save their industry,” says Treve Ring, a Vancouver wine judge and writer. “Unfortunately, that meant that, by the 1970s, everything was an organized grid of vines and there wasn’t a single blade of grass anywhere,” he adds.
Some houses are committed to sustainable viticulture and transforming the region. Sismondo highlights a few initiatives in her article, such as Roederer’s biodynamically farmed vineyards and the lightweight bottles Telmont ships box-free via wind-powered sailboats. Whilst such initiatives deserve to be applauded, Caroline Henry stresses that when it comes to Champagne overall, we need to take a hard look at current practices and have an open conversation in order to drive positive change.
In her Substack Terroir Champagne, Henry discusses how the region persistently disregards national ecological regulations, both in terms of glyphosate and copper usage. “Champagne has long been a master in refocusing the attention from wide-spread malpractices in the vineyard to small-scale ecological experiments – often conducted with lots of bells and whistles by a prestigious house,” she says. The region has been “getting away with its flagrant disregard of ecological restrictions, mainly because journalists have not been exposing it.”
Champagne has not yet felt the most negative impacts of climate change, but it needs to take an active stance on mitigation. Henry notes that only exposure of the region’s herbicide abuse will lead to “an active investment in change” and calls for greater transparency in journalism. Read more here.
