I was on the Bench yesterday for meetings and, as is usually the case, I learned a little more about how wine is made. Typically when you're laying out grapevines you want to align them for sun exposure. In hotter regions, you might align them east-west to minimize the harsh afternoon son. And in cooler climates, like Niagara or Burgundy, you might align them north-south to try and maximize sun exposure.
But what I learned is that topography often takes priority over sun exposure — especially in cooler regions. In practice, this means you generally want to align the grapevines so that they follow the slope of the land. Why? Because cold air is heavier than warm air. Aligning with the slope allows cold air to naturally drain away, which helps the vines survive the winter and reduces the risk of things like spring frost.
If, instead, you aligned the vineyard rows across the slope (as opposed to up and down), well then cold air might get trapped. The same is true for water drainage. I'm told you don't want pooling. And this is why it tends to be more important to optimize for topography rather than just sun exposure, though I'm sure it gets a lot more nuanced when you really know what you're doing.
Regardless, I find all of this fascinating because it's an intensely local activity. You need to understand how the sun moves across the site. You need to understand the site contours and where air and water will flow. And then you need to optimize for these specific conditions. It's exactly how architecture used to work before we had active mechanical systems, like AC, that could do all of the work for us.
We have talked about this before on the blog, but wineries continue to be a great leading indicator for our changing climate. Above is a
Last year over the holidays, I attended a virtual wine tasting event that was put on by one of our partners. It was with a vineyard / winemaker in Spain and so it was evening for us and some ungodly hour for him.
At the end of the tasting -- which was exceptional, by the way -- I asked him what he thought about the Niagara region. Some of you may know that I love to support local Ontario wines. His response was hilarious and something along the lines of: "When we think of Niagara wines, we think of a part of the world that shouldn't produce wine but somehow does."
I was on the Bench yesterday for meetings and, as is usually the case, I learned a little more about how wine is made. Typically when you're laying out grapevines you want to align them for sun exposure. In hotter regions, you might align them east-west to minimize the harsh afternoon son. And in cooler climates, like Niagara or Burgundy, you might align them north-south to try and maximize sun exposure.
But what I learned is that topography often takes priority over sun exposure — especially in cooler regions. In practice, this means you generally want to align the grapevines so that they follow the slope of the land. Why? Because cold air is heavier than warm air. Aligning with the slope allows cold air to naturally drain away, which helps the vines survive the winter and reduces the risk of things like spring frost.
If, instead, you aligned the vineyard rows across the slope (as opposed to up and down), well then cold air might get trapped. The same is true for water drainage. I'm told you don't want pooling. And this is why it tends to be more important to optimize for topography rather than just sun exposure, though I'm sure it gets a lot more nuanced when you really know what you're doing.
Regardless, I find all of this fascinating because it's an intensely local activity. You need to understand how the sun moves across the site. You need to understand the site contours and where air and water will flow. And then you need to optimize for these specific conditions. It's exactly how architecture used to work before we had active mechanical systems, like AC, that could do all of the work for us.
We have talked about this before on the blog, but wineries continue to be a great leading indicator for our changing climate. Above is a
Last year over the holidays, I attended a virtual wine tasting event that was put on by one of our partners. It was with a vineyard / winemaker in Spain and so it was evening for us and some ungodly hour for him.
At the end of the tasting -- which was exceptional, by the way -- I asked him what he thought about the Niagara region. Some of you may know that I love to support local Ontario wines. His response was hilarious and something along the lines of: "When we think of Niagara wines, we think of a part of the world that shouldn't produce wine but somehow does."
Image: FT
This was maybe the case before. But I think the region, vines, and industry have all matured. We also have some exceptional winemakers, some of which have come from the Old World because our startup-y wine region affords them far more creative freedom.
But you might also argue that things are changing because our climate is changing. The Financial Times recently published an interesting "big read" about how agricultural production and crop types are shifting around the world in the face of climate temperatures.
It turns out that wine grapes are a pretty good leading indicator. A canary in the coal mine if you will. Because climate matters a great deal if you're trying to make exceptional wines. And if you've been harvesting a particular thing at a certain time for the last 5 decades and you're now doing it several weeks earlier, it might be a sign that something is changing.
It also turns out that two countries, in particular, stand to disproportionately benefit from this shifting agricultural landscape: Canada and Russia. As temperatures change, a new agricultural frontier is going to be created. And it is expected that more than 50% of this land will be in these two countries. See image at the top of this post.
Of course, there's a flipside to this change. Countries on the other end of the spectrum with marginal growing climates and/or low production yields, could be severely impacted by higher temperatures. So perhaps it is a good idea to stay on top of what's happening in the world of wine. Might I recommend something from Niagara?
Image: FT
Image: FT
This was maybe the case before. But I think the region, vines, and industry have all matured. We also have some exceptional winemakers, some of which have come from the Old World because our startup-y wine region affords them far more creative freedom.
But you might also argue that things are changing because our climate is changing. The Financial Times recently published an interesting "big read" about how agricultural production and crop types are shifting around the world in the face of climate temperatures.
It turns out that wine grapes are a pretty good leading indicator. A canary in the coal mine if you will. Because climate matters a great deal if you're trying to make exceptional wines. And if you've been harvesting a particular thing at a certain time for the last 5 decades and you're now doing it several weeks earlier, it might be a sign that something is changing.
It also turns out that two countries, in particular, stand to disproportionately benefit from this shifting agricultural landscape: Canada and Russia. As temperatures change, a new agricultural frontier is going to be created. And it is expected that more than 50% of this land will be in these two countries. See image at the top of this post.
Of course, there's a flipside to this change. Countries on the other end of the spectrum with marginal growing climates and/or low production yields, could be severely impacted by higher temperatures. So perhaps it is a good idea to stay on top of what's happening in the world of wine. Might I recommend something from Niagara?
Image: FT
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