Climate reports

Today I came across an article in Euronews about the changes European agriculture is facing due to climate change, and it sounds serious. Now the article was a sponsored feature by Copernicus which is getting funding from the ECMWF and the EU. Copernicus is selling their climate data services through this article, but it did have some very interesting information relevant to our project. One of the crops covered is grapevines naturally, which are under increasing stress in Spain and Portugal.

They point out that a study recently indicated that vineyards need to adapt urgently to protect the quality of their harvests but the current policy for Protected Designation of Origin regions is standing in the way. Interesting. They also note experimentation with different varieties and altered methods.

One of Portugal’s main port wine producers is testing a climate application meant to improve the vineyard’s resilience to climate change. The Vineyards Integrated Smart Climate Application (VISCA), an EU initiative, combines climate, agriculture and farmer-specific information to adapt crop planning to climate change. Crop forcing, one technique used, involves moving the ripening time from hot summer months to later, cooler months, by extra pruning, halting the vine’s natural cycle and forcing it to start it later.

The VISCA project which has Horizon 2020 funding and ends in December of this year, has developed a tool for monitoring and advising farmers about mitigating the effects of climate change. All very interesting. We need to follow up with VISCA to see if any follow-up research is planned.

Meanwhile, a preliminary climate report for 2019 in Ireland has shown that our hunch seems to be in line with reality.

When fully analysed, 2019 will likely be the second or third warmest year on record. Average temperatures for the five-year (2015-2019) and ten-year (2010-2019) periods are almost certain to be the highest on record. Since the 1980s each decade has been warmer than the previous one. This trend is expected to continue.

I'm not certain any more that I want to be right. If climate change is somehow an impetus for diseases like COVID-19 to break out in prolonged pandemics, then making wine won't make enough of a difference. 

Climate Change Experimentation

Trellises and companion crops in Galicia

Another article in the New York Times covers how the desert of Isreal is being used to test how the grapes of today will react to the climate of tomorrow. That's actually pretty smart. And, once again, they are adopting techniques we have already implemented like using trellises and ventilation.

What they won't learn, however, is how the extremes of climate will affect the grape output and production of wine. For that you need climate variability. And we certainly are getting a lot of that here. Today, soaking warm rain all day. Friday, the possibility of snow.

And it's not just vintners that are adjusting. Everyone in agriculture is scrambling to find answers. Fruit and nut farmers are having the toughest time as it takes so long to get to mature status for trees.

Netting to shade grapes

The NYT examines climate change’s impact on wine

In the last line of part one in the 4-part series on the effects of climate change on viticulture, New York Times columnist Eric Azimov concludes,

"Viticulture by its nature is complicated. As the world’s climates are transformed, it is only becoming more so."

Curiously, he recounts the thinking of wine grape growers around the world and it sounds eerily familiar. Everything I've been writing about for the past 5 years is in there. The vines I've chosen, the location, the experimentation with different varietals, the soil effects, the thinking behind the decisions, and so on are all in there. Reading it made me feel like a scientist again. Reading it also made me think that I'm a mad scientist: smart enough to know how to try and crazy enough to try when everything is getting increasingly unpredictable. What have we done?  Are we going to drive ourselves insane?

I can't wait to read the next instalment.

Here's what the promotional statement about the series said:

"Around the world, smart wine producers are working on ways to keep their vineyards flourishing despite hotter summers, warmer winters, droughts and the sometimes violent expressions of climate change, like freak hailstorms, spring frosts, flooding and wildfires.

In the first of a four-part series, The Times’s wine critic, Eric Asimov, teases out the major themes: new technologies, experiments with different grapes, a shifting map for viticulture, higher-altitude vineyards and planting to limit rather than maximize exposure to sunlight."

Flower buds have formed

After several days of warm weather following a solid rainfall, the vines have gone bananas developing clusters of tiny flowers. The bees have been busy in the orchard next door, so hopefully they'll move on to the vineyard next. How exciting. Now we're settling in for two months of watching and waiting and hoping. Our first crop perhaps?

Success in the new plantings

It's nice to report that all the newly planted vines have taken, have leafed and grown to about a foot tall. That's a relief. Even the Chardonnay test vines have sprouted and actually look more vigorous than the others. Yea!

The original vines planted in 2015 have grown massively this season, as everything else seems to have done, and are flowering profusely, both red and white. We may actually have a small harvest this year. Next year we must prune without reserve. First, we have to learn how.

“Professional wine courses for amateurs or aficionados, using e-learning, so allowing you to follow your course from home, 24/7″.

Impact of Climate Change on Viticulture Globally

Numerous articles have been published about the effects of climate change on the wine industry and mitigation strategies are already being implemented. It is always interesting to me that man feels compelled to control his environment. That usually lasts long into the period after realization has set in that controlling it is in fact impossible and moving on is a more sensible solution. But of course, moving on from an estate that's been in the family for centuries is not a really feasible proposition.

The higher likelihood is that someone recognizes the potential and establishes competition elsewhere which eventually becomes more successful. At that point, the original estate begins to need more income and finds new crops to plant that are more suitable to the new environment. At least, that's how I imagine things to work and have read similar stories.

Michelle Renee Mozell and Liz Thach write in their recent review article, "Though wine is not essential to human survival, wine is an important product of human ingenuity." They tackle the global literature  about the impact of climate change on the global wine industry. It's that human fascination with wine that makes wine production a sacrosanct activity and may even be the impetus that gets governments on board the climate change mitigation train.

The entire range of grape growing climate zones is about 10°C globally; for some grapes, such as Pinot noir, the range is an even narrower 2C°. Many progressive wine growers have already taken steps to mitigate the effects of climate change, including cooling the grapes by misting and changes irrigation practices. But in the long run, those types of practices will be affected by availability of fresh water as we are seeing in California. Some are changing the manner in which they process the grapes into wine and others are planting new more tolerant varieties or buying up land in more favourable climates. It is surprising how aware these growers are of the changing climate compared with the naysayers in the public domain. But of course, farmers and fishermen are always among the first to notice the changes, it's just that they are infrequently asked by the scientists to share their observations. Perhaps now they will be, especially as funding for science drops out.

But there are three areas that still need research to determine optimal strategies:

• studies to identify how plants, microrganisms and pathogens will respond to simultaneous rise in temperature and CO2 while rainfall decreases in traditional wine growing regions
• means by which to reduce emission of the greenhouse gasses, nitrous oxide and methane, by vineyards during the production of wines
• resource management throughout the production chain

The authors conclude, "wine's future is tied inextricably to a vital Earth and a vital population. Grape growers and winemakers must understand both the dire condition of the planet and the small, but significant, role their industry holds in the human matrix. They must seek, therefore, in a responsible manner, their proper and effective role in the adaptation to and the mitigation of global climate change. The future of the wine industry is dependent upon an effective course of action. The Romans declared, 'Vino veritas,' or 'in wine there is truth'. The simple, yet tragic, truth is the Earth's climate is changing. How the wine industry responds will determine if the industry is to survive."



www.sciencedirect.com
Wine Economics and Policy 3 (2014) 81–89
The impact of climate change on the global wine industry:
Challenges & solutions
Michelle Renée Mozell, Liz Thach
Sonoma State University Wine Business Institute, 1801 E. Cotati Blvd, Rohnert Park, CA 94928, USA
 http://ac.els-cdn.com/S2212977414000222/1-s2.0-S2212977414000222-main.pdf?_tid=6c72a3ec-57d4-11e5-9028-00000aacb361&acdnat=1441900736_d33fc9b7e34238d304eb94e45364105f

The science of wine

Original edition cover.

Current edition.

Being a scientist by training, I would naturally be attracted to the scientific side of things, although I do believe that viniculture is as much an art as it is a science, perhaps even with a little witchcraft thrown in. Maybe like in the book Blessed are the Cheesemakers we should be humming the Sound of Music to the grapevines to make them grow luscious grapes.

Anyway, this title -- The science of wine -- by Jamie Goode caught my attention.  Curiously, the first edition has a subtitle FROM VINE TO GLASS. The second edition in the photo has the same subtitle and was published by University of California Press and is being sold for $39.95.  The copy I purchased has the title Wine Science and subtitle The Application of Science in Winemaking. Personally, I prefer the simpler from vine to glass which says it all without redundancy. The publisher's name, Mitchell Beazley, also appears on the cover of my edition, which is confusing as I have never heard of that imprint and it looked just like another author's name. That version is available on amazon for $23-26 and shows it being shipped from the UK. Not to be confused with the Wine Science, Fourth Edition: Principles and Applications (Food Science and Technology) July 7, 2014 by Ronald S. Jackson which sells for $122.45 in print and $77 in Kindle. All versions are hardcover. Confused yet? I was but it is worth the effort.

Current edition, different publisher?

The fact that the second edition was released April 1, 2014 makes it that much more interesting to me, as it's not only April Fool's Day it is my namesake day. Yes, St. Daria's Day is April 1. But I wonder why they changed the title. The edition I have shows up with a publication date of April 10, 2014.  So what made them change it between April 1 and April 10? It may be that one is published in the US and the other in the UK but why would both be available in both places. And why change it to a title that is already in use. Plus the author released a Kindle only supplement which has the chapters that were cut from the second edition but appeared in the first edition. Among them was the chapter on the effect of global warming, so naturally I had to buy that, too.

But anyway, I seriously digressed.  The book is divided into three sections. In the Vineyard, In the Winery, and Our Interaction with Wine.  That makes a lot of sense. As I sat down to read it, I was pleasantly surprised by the author's style. It is not overly scientific but rather quite readable.  The author's own knowledge and experience is supplemented by analysis of the most current scientific literature and interpretation by experts in each of the fields. It is a rich mixture of fact and opinion that he presents the reader.

The first part covers everything that affects the vineyard from the biology of the plants, terroir in terms of soil structure and climate, the interaction between roots and elements in the soil, key diseases and pests, different theories of plant management, biodynamics in the vineyard, moisture control and stress, and trellis systems, pruning and canopy management.  In a short 87 pages, I felt the author had imparted a wealth of knowledge that would serve us well in growing the grapes for the first few years.  I will come back to this book time and again.

The Effect of Climate Change on Viticulture in Europe

I thought that this was a breakthrough idea I had, growing grapes in Ireland in anticipation of climate change that is. Then I started doing some research.

It turns out there is a major effort underway in Europe to identify climate change mitigation strategies. Called rather cumbersomely, ClimVineSafe, the cross-european border participants are looking for short-term solutions that would keep the viniculture industry safe. The Portuguese are at the forefront of the movement.

A major review paper has been published to analyze everything that is known about the subject. It is very detailed. A new study is being conducted to see which strategies might be most effective. This is a very interesting development. Although I wasn't the first to think of this, clearly I was on the right track and our strategy of growing grapes in Ireland might just not be so hair brained* after all.

Review
An overview of climate change impacts on European viticulture
H. Fraga*, A. C. Malheiro, J. Moutinho-Pereira and J. A. Santos
Food and Energy Security Volume 1, Issue 2, pages 94–110, November 2012
Article first published online: 17 FEB 2013 DOI: 10.1002/fes3.14
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/fes3.14/full

I am going to study this and report back what I learn. Stay tuned.



* highly scientific term

What's in a Name?

As soon as Alex had built the gate, I knew we had to have a name for the vineyard, which I voiced out loud, "We need to name the vineyard."

"It's Daria's Vineyard," he blurted out authoritatively.  I countered saying it should have a more romantic name. He said, "No, like Martha's Vineyard, this is Daria's Vineyard. It was your idea, and so it has to be your vineyard. Besides, it won't be producing anything significant in our lifetimes, so we might as well make people wonder who was the person who crazily planted a vineyard in the west of Ireland."

And so, the vineyard was christened, Daria's Vineyard. Wait, was my dear husband calling me a crazy person?  I suppose so, but then I guess the shoe fits.

Now that we have a name, we'll need a sign.  Not just any old sign. Vineyard's always have interesting signs that tell a story.  So, we'll have to tell a story, too. Let's see.  It's a vineyard by the shore where the mountains come to down to the sea. Works for me.

First we need a medium.  I happen to have several very nice pieces of driftwood I didn't know what to do with.  Looks like I'll have to see if any of them work. Then I happen to have leftover oil paints from the sign we painted in Horta in the Azores that needs to be used up.  That sounds like a good start.

Now, I'll need a design.  Let's see, a stylized shore scene, a line drawing of the Holy Mountain that we see prominently from the vineyard, and of course a representation of Vitis vinifera.  I wonder if I'm up to the task?  The last time (and only time) I took an art class, I had some minor perspective problems. But let's not worry about that.

Okay, final thing on the list before we begin. Typeface.  Let's try a few out.

Daria’s Vineyard  - too stodgy

Daria’s Vineyard - whimsical, not bad

Daria’s Vineyard - too plain

Daria’s Vineyard - don't like cap D but OK

Daria’s Vineyard - too thin to paint

Daria’s Vineyard - bit too strong

Daria’s Vineyard-hey I like this one but I can't get it to work in blogger.

 Daria’sVineyard

By the sea

This one looks right:  DS_Celtic-2.  I can see the brushstrokes forming now. Good to paint. Not a very popular typeface but pretty distinctive for an Irish vineyard. Yes, I think this will work. Right, so let's get to work. I'll just paint myself a sign to post on the lovely gate Alex built.

Voila!

 

Daria's vineyard, established 2015 near Croagh Patrick, where the mountains come down to the sea. All of that on one little sign. I left out the "by the sea" and introduced a sailing boat instead to say the same thing visually.

It looks better in real life than in this photo, and I am really quite pleased. It was hard to get the whole thing into the frame as the greenhouse just isn't high enough and the sign is rather substantial. The Paint is still wet so we'll just have to keep our paws off until it sets.

When we post the sign we'll complement it with a toast of a bubbly we'd been saving. We tend to do that with bubbly. We save the really special ones for special occasions and then forget to drink them. It wasn't like christening a ship, which I cannot believe they still do with a bottle broken over the bow.  Why would you want to damage a brand-new vessel?  Or a lovely new gate?

So here's to Daria's Vineyard.  May it produce surprising reproducible results that delight the wine tasters for their boldness. Sláinte!

Here's a video showing the detail for the full length of the sign.  

Picking the grape varieties. Viti-culture

When I titled this picking the grapes, I didn't mean the fruit itself.  I meant the vines. You have to start somewhere. I am happy to say that the vines we chose -- well Alex selected -- are alive and actually growing. That's a good first step, I suppose. This is after all agriculture, and we know how intelligent it is to get into that with climate change around the corner.

As you can see, we are not especially pedantic about keeping the grapes weed free. Here's another one of my hair brained theories. Grapevines evolved into vines because they were growing in crowded conditions. In their native territory, they climbed trees to reach the sun where their fruits could ripen. No wonder they like poor soil. Well, if that's the case, then clearing everything around them will keep them short and fat, rather than reaching for the sun. Let them have a little competition if that's what they like, I say.

The grape is a particularly interesting specimen. There is only one species, Vitis vinifera, and hundreds of cultivars that are grown in different regions and largely responsible for the rich variations in the resultant wines. The grapevine varieties we picked are Rondo for red and Solaris for white, both on SO4 stock. These are cultivars that are supposed to do well in Ireland outside without polytunnels. So far so good.

The vines are grafted onto SO4, the rootstock of Vitis berlandieri, a native of North America, which is particularly resistant to phylloxera -- the disease that almost killed off the great vineyards of Europe -- and lime, which is a major component of the soils of France where grapes were grown.  Generally, grapes like acid soil. I was about to mulch them with pine needles but now I am not so certain. Better read up on SO4 first.

I look at this as the year of getting to know each other. The growth cycle of grapevines is an annual process beginning with bud break in the spring and culminating in leaf fall in autumn followed by winter dormancy. The stages of the annual growth cycle usually become observable within the first year of a vine's life. The amount of time spent at each stage of the growth cycle depends on a number of factors, most notably the type of climate and the characteristics of the grape variety. This is our introduction to viticulture. And it is the grapevine's introduction to how much we will do to support its development. 

From a winemaking or viniculture perspective, each step in the process plays a vital role in the development of grapes with the ideal characteristics for the making of a wine. Some things are good. Others are bad. Viticulturalists  monitor the effects of climate, disease and pestilence in facilitating or impeding the vines progression from bud break, flowering, fruit set, veraison, harvesting, leaf fall and dormancy. Human nature is to control all of the above, reacting to situations with the use of viticultural practices that we have yet to learn -- like canopy management, irrigation, vine training and the use of agrochemicals.

How far we are willing to take it remains to be seen.  At least our grapevines are visible from a distance in the field now. That's a good baby step.

Welcome to Daria's Vineyard.