Winter is here!

 

It's cold. Definitely cold. It's the time of year when we get awesome sunsets and sunrises if we are up to see them. The wine is settling well, the vines are asleep, and the question is, "It it winter now?" For those who wish to debate when winter is officially in place, I include a graphic shared by Carlow Weather. Going by the Celtic calendar, we have just entered Bealtaine. 

Old Vine Wines

Vintners just outside Los Angeles got together to tend an 18th century vine and return it to production. This year, they released the first wine made from its grapes harvested over the past four years. The Ramona vine, thought to be the oldest in America, is believed to have been planted in the 1770s as the Spanish Franciscans built their Mission St Gabriel. It is a hybrid of the indigenous Vitis Girdiana and the Mission brought from Spain. 

The winemakers studied old Mission records for clues as to how the monks made their wines. They decided to use the Solera system, which is used in Sherry production to blend wines across vintages. Older wines add depth and complexity, and younger must adds acidity and freshness. 

The resulting wine was named Angelica, and includes juice from the 2021, 2022, and 2023 vintages, combined with the initial wine from 2020.

But are old vines any good at producing fine wines? The oldest vine still producing wine is in Maribor in Slovenia and is believed to be 400 years old. What does it mean if you see ‘old vines’, ‘vieilles vignes’, or ‘viñas viejas’ on a wine label? 

Anecdotal evidence suggests that more established vines give a depth to wine that young vines don't. It's possible to make impressive wine with young vines, and there's a known 'virgin vintage' effect where the first crop from young vines is fantastic. The famous Stag's Leap 1973 that won the Judgement of Paris in 1976 was made from three-year-old vines. Typically, follow-on vintages are rarely so spectacular until the vine gets to be at least a decade old.

We have suffered from the same 'virgin vintage' effect. Our first two bottles of wine from the Rondo grapes were exceptional. The next two years were pitiful. We'll see what happens this year which was year 8. 

This is a great article about the age of vines and what happens to the wine. 

Last 8-hour day of the season

 

Sun in Dublin - Next 7 Days

2023	Sunrise/Sunset		Daylength		Solar Noon
Nov	Sunrise	Sunset	Length	Diff.	Time	Mil. km
28 Nov	08:12	16:13	8:01:13	−2:31	12:12 (15.4°)	147.593
29 Nov	08:13	16:12	7:58:47	−2:26	12:13 (15.2°)	147.568
30 Nov	08:15	16:11	7:56:25	−2:21	12:13 (15.1°)	147.543
1 Dec	08:16	16:10	7:54:08	−2:16	12:13 (14.9°)	147.519
2 Dec	08:18	16:10	7:51:56	−2:11	12:14 (14.8°)	147.496
3 Dec	08:19	16:09	7:49:50	−2:06	12:14 (14.6°)	147.473
4 Dec	08:21	16:08	7:47:50	−2:00	12:15 (14.5°)	147.452
* All times are local time for Dublin. They take into account refraction. Dates are based on the Gregorian calendar.

Global temps exceed 2C above pre-industrial era

ERA5 data from @CopernicusECMWF indicates that 17 November was the first day that the global temperature exceeded 2°C above pre-industrial levels, reaching 2.07°C above the 1850-1900 average and the provisional ERA5 value for 18 November is 2.06°C.

A scorching heat wave hit Brazil this week. A 23-year-old woman died at Taylor Swift's Eras concert in Rio, causing Taylor to postpone her concerts. And it's not even summer there yet. 

The heat index — a combination of temperature and humidity — hit 58.5 degrees Celsius (137 Fahrenheit) Tuesday morning in Rio, the highest index ever recorded there. Actual temperatures dropped slightly on Wednesday, but were forecast to rise again to 40 degrees Celsius (104 F) on Thursday.

Temperatures across South America are affected by the El Niño, a periodic naturally occurring event that warms surface waters in the Equatorial Pacific region. But this year, ocean temperature rose extremely quickly – in a couple of months -- indicating that climate change impacts are accelerating. 

Heat waves are increasing in frequency -- this one is Brazil's eighth this year -- and there is for the first time an area of NE Bahia state that has the characteristics of a desert. 

This is not normal. But perhaps it's the most normal we will see in our lifetimes. 

Warmest October

According to the latest monthly climate update from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), October 2023 was the warmest October globally in the ERA5 data record, going back to 1940, The average surface air temperature reached 15.30°C, 0.85°C above the 1991-2020 average for October. This marks the second-highest global temperature anomaly across all months in the ERA5 dataset, after September 2023 (with an anomaly of 0.93°C). 

October 2023 was 1.7°C above the average for 1850-1900, designated as the pre-industrial reference period. 

From January to October, the year 2023 was 0.1°C warmer than the ten-month average for 2016, currently the warmest calendar year on record, and 1.43°C warmer than the pre-industrial reference period. This was the fifth consecutive month of record temperatures globally. That makes 2023 on track to become the warmest year ever. 

Sea surface temperature for the extrapolar oceans (over 60°S–60°N) was the highest on record for October at 20.79°C. 

Nov. 17 we did it, even if just for one day. It was the first time in recorded history that the global 2m surface temperature breached 2.0°C above the 1850-1900 IPCC baseline.

Now that's a tractor

 A Porche in the vineyards? Naturally! 😎 

Climate change is taking its toll on farmers

The floods in Emilia-Romagna wine region of Northern Italy

The new climate pattern of floods alternating with drought in Europe is taking its toll on the mental health of farmers, an article in EuroNews reveals. I know that I for one am glad that we stopped at a manageable size of grape farm at Daria's Vineyard. We don't need to bring in workers yet, and if the crop fails it's not a disaster for us. 

Italy is seriously affected by the alternating cycles of drought and flood, as seen earlier this year. Farmers are calling for “emotional and economic support” for producers. Vintners in Portugal and Spain have been suffering as well. But it's not just southern Europe. Vineyards in Germany were severely damaged by floods in 2021. 

I'm very glad we are on a hillside leading down to the sea and the water drains off fairly quickly. Although our fields have been very soft and squishy this Autumn. I hope we can survive this dramatic change in climate ourselves. 

I admit to being obsessed with climate weirdness and the daily weather it brings.