NYT: Napa's dwindling options in a wildfire world

[Jenise]

Sad article:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/18/clim ... ather.html

Jenise, I couldn't get past the subscription window on NY Times, but found this:

https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/wine/a ... 304533.php

Have memories of those wineries not producing a 2020 vintage. Cab Sauv is ripens late. So it's particularly at risk for fire seasons IMHO.

[David M. Bueker]

Not being able to get insurance will eventually kill the industry,

Amazing. A reminder that nothing ever stays the same. But obviously the rapid and dramatic changes here will be tough to digest.

And the bit about sunscreen on the grapes was amazing! How does that work? Most sunscreen for skin is so toxic, you wouldn't want it anywhere near food or something as delicate as wine grapes!?

[David M. Bueker]

Amazing. A reminder that nothing ever stays the same. But obviously the rapid and dramatic changes here will be tough to digest.

And the bit about sunscreen on the grapes was amazing! How does that work? Most sunscreen for skin is so toxic, you wouldn't want it anywhere near food or something as delicate as wine grapes!?

Yeah, I found the sunscreen thing weird, and disquieting.

[David M. Bueker]

And just like that Jon Bonne has some insight. It’s not Hawaiian Tropic. It’s some kind of dispersed clay particles.

What a depressing report!

The growing wildfire risk to vineyards and wineries is especially frequent and dramatic in California and Australia but it wouldn't surprise me to find more European wine regions at risk as the climate warms up. Portugal and Greece get frequent fires and it wouldn't surprise me to learn of Tuscany, Provence and Languedoc burning; indeed there have already been fires in La Clape this summer. The Graves and Médoc sub-regions of Bordeaux are close to the Landes forest where there have been spectacular wildfires from time to time.

Then there is a more subtle risk of the overturning of wine site hierarchies. The top sites,e.g. in Burgundy, Mosel, Nahe..., which owe their reputations to favourable micro-climates, could become too hot whilst cooler and currently less well regarded sites in the same region or further north get better results. Plantation of new slower maturing grape varieties is likely but will these give anything like the same character or quality as the traditional ones?

And then there is water. The pathetic pictures of devastation in the Ahr valley probably mean the flooding of many wineries and destruction of their equipment and stocks of wine, although the vines high on the valley sides are surely safe.

It’s not Hawaiian Tropic. It’s some kind of dispersed clay particles.

Ok. I was wondering if it was something specially-designed for grapes/crops. Makes sense.

[Jenise]

Not being able to get insurance will eventually kill the industry,

YES.