Climate trends looking bad for California ...

[Robin Garr]

According to this report from The Academic Wino, anyway.

Actually, I've been thinking this for years, and bemused by the odd reality that taste trends driven by Parker and the Speck have somewhat masked climate's role in rising ripeness and alcohols. If hot-climate grapes win ratings, then what, me worry? But it doesn't look good for coming generations.

http://www.academicwino.com/2015/10/cli ... rnal.html/

[David M. Bueker]

I think you (and the author) draw some premature (and/or erroneous) conclusions. Yes it has warmed up and will continue, but quality continues to improve, and we have broken free of the one size (huge!!) fits all winemaking model in California. More and more small producers are making really interesting wines in new places, sometimes with different grapes, and the trend is upward.

California has more flexibility, I think, than the European wine regions for adapting to warmer climates in that there is less ingrained attachment to certain grape varieties. It is hard to imagine, say, Burgundy easily giving up Pinot Noir and planting Syrah or Grenache in its place. However, the effects of global warming could be paradoxical in Europe, if as a result of the melting of the icecap and glaciers in Greenland, the Gulf Stream were diverted southwards making the climate of Britain, France and NW Spain more like that of Labrador. Meanwhile, the Mediterranean area would be still getting hotter and hotter.

On a slightly different tack, a popular French TV weather forecaster has just been suspended because he has written a book sceptical about climate change. We may not agree with this position but isn't free speech, which is not an incitement to violence, a more important principle than Political Correctness on this (and other) issues?

[Robin Garr]

I guess I'm seeing this as more a micro example of a macro problem. Sure, Napa can go over to Zinfandel and Burgundy (horreur!) to Syrah, but it gets a little more problematic if the American Midwest, or Europe's wheat-growing regions, struggle to produce enough edible grain.

[David M. Bueker]

I guess I'm seeing this as more a micro example of a macro problem. Sure, Napa can go over to Zinfandel and Burgundy (horreur!) to Syrah, but it gets a little more problematic if the American Midwest, or Europe's wheat-growing regions, struggle to produce enough edible grain.

True, but that's not what you said above.

Wheat's the devil anyway. Haven't you heard?

[Robin Garr]

True, but that's not what you said above.

I figured it was implicit. And I'd add that even if Napa and Burgundy CAN evolve from Cabernet and Pinot, respectively, that's still pretty armageddonish.

Wheat's the devil anyway. Haven't you heard?

I love bread. I love pasta. I am not celiac. I embrace this devil.

[David M. Bueker]

California is more than Napa.

Burgundy is doing just fine for now. I heard on Facebook from Allen Meadows that it was snowing the other day.
#noglobalwarminghere