On September 12th, the winery where I work harvested grapes for the first time in the 2019 season. While grape growth wasn't as abnormally accelerated as in 2018, when the harvest came nearly a month earlier than usual, 2019 still marked the beginning of what appears to be quite an early season from a long-term average perspective.
Behind this earlier ripening of grapes lies rising annual average temperatures. Climate change on a global scale has been discussed for quite some time, but witnessing these changes daily through the grape maturation process allows us to truly experience the magnitude of their impact firsthand.
Confronted with such changes, what becomes particularly troubling is the issue of "vineyard location." Previously, in an article titled "Are Mountains and Rivers Necessary? Vineyard Location Conditions," I discussed the importance of mountains and rivers for vineyards and wine producers. Today, I would like to examine vineyard location conditions from a different perspective.
Vineyard Location and Classification Systems
Most wine regions have systems for evaluating wine classifications. In Europe, known as the "Old World" in the wine industry, every country has such a system. These are stipulated as wine laws in each respective country.
Some of these systems, like Germany's, are based on the must weight (sugar content) of harvested grapes. However, many follow systems like those in Burgundy, France, which use evaluation criteria rooted in the vineyards themselves—that is, the land where grapes are cultivated.
Even in Germany, while wine law employs classification divisions based on must weight, organizations like the VDP (Verband Deutscher Prädikats und Qualitätsweingüter, Association of German Prädikat and Quality Wine Estates) are increasingly establishing and operating their own vineyard-based classification systems.
"High-classification wines" based on these systems do not directly guarantee superior quality. They merely indicate that certain stipulated criteria have been met for high classification. However, wines with higher classifications do tend to exhibit superior quality, which serves as validation for these systems.
What Makes a High-Classification Vineyard?
Vineyards that serve as the basis for high classifications in various wine classification systems are not arbitrarily selected. These vineyards have been observed over long periods of time. They are listed only after it has been confirmed that they can produce high-quality grapes with reasonable consistency on average.
In other words, highly rated (high-classification) vineyards are nothing more than vineyards capable of consistently harvesting better grapes.
This "better grape" refers to well-ripened grapes with good health conditions and high sugar content.
Interpreting this more specifically, such vineyards possess the following characteristics:
- Good ventilation and dry conditions, with high resistance to diseases due to their location
- Easy access to sunlight and environments where daytime temperatures rise readily—conditions suitable for grape maturation
Taking a somewhat cynical view, these are lands where superior location allows for the harvesting of grapes of a certain quality or higher each year with relative ease.
As you may already understand, in this vineyard-based wine classification system, vineyard location and wine classification are treated on the same continuum. In this system, wines are almost completely tied to their vineyards.
The underlying premise is that wines made from grapes harvested in vineyards with superior locations should naturally possess quality above a certain standard.
Do Evaluations Based on Must Weight and Location Conflict?
Here, let me digress slightly. Recently in Germany, there has been a movement away from the traditional must weight-based classification system stipulated by wine law toward organizations independently adopting location-based classification systems.
While these two systems may appear to conflict, there is essentially little difference between them.
As already mentioned, excellent vineyards are those with superior locations that can consistently harvest high-quality grapes with relative ease. Grapes harvested from vineyards classified as high-grade under such premises can maintain relatively stable high ripeness levels. Indeed, they must do so. High ripeness directly translates to high must weight at harvest.
In essence, this is little different from conducting classification evaluations based on the must weight of harvested grapes.
Problems Behind Earlier Growth and Maturation
Recent annual average temperatures are trending upward, with summer days reaching nearly 40°C even in Europe becoming more frequent.
Against this backdrop of meteorological change, regions once called the northern limits of grape cultivation are advancing northward. Lands where grape cultivation was previously difficult are now producing high-quality grapes.
In traditional wine regions, growth itself has become earlier than before, ripeness levels have increased, and more powerful wines can now be produced. Some welcome these changes. In a sense, this climate change acts as a global bottom-up response to the temperature bottleneck that once existed, lowering the hurdle of achieving ripeness in grape cultivation.
Looking at this alone, it certainly seems beneficial for grape farmers. However, in reality, there are quite a few growers who are troubled by these developments. This tendency is particularly pronounced among growers who own vineyards in locations that have traditionally been highly regarded as prime sites.
Good Vineyards Becoming Excessive
To reiterate, land considered excellent in traditional location-based classification systems possesses the following characteristics:
- Dry conditions
- Good sunlight exposure with readily rising temperatures
Previously, such locational features were rare and possessed inherent scarcity value.
Based on this scarcity, wine classifications became elevated, leading to prestige and ultimately price. Because vineyards with rare characteristics were limited in area, the quantity of wines produced from them could not be increased. This created additional scarcity that drove prices higher. The act of purchasing and drinking expensive, hard-to-obtain wines became proof of the drinker's status, further elevating the wine's prestige.
However, recent climate change is fundamentally overturning these premises.
With year-round temperature increases and changes in rainfall during grape growing seasons, drying has progressed across entire regions within broad frameworks like the EU. The characteristics mentioned above are becoming less special.
Even wines made from harvests in vineyards that were once vast but ordinary in location have improved in quality due to climate change. Evaluation methods for wine quality based on traditional classifications and their associated prices are becoming untenable.
The entire industry is indeed experiencing a bottom-up transformation.
While some vineyards benefit from this bottom-up effect, in lands that traditionally possessed such characteristics, these "features" are becoming even more pronounced. In some cases, they are becoming extreme, shifting from "optimal conditions" to "excessive conditions." Daytime temperatures are becoming too high, and conditions are becoming too dry.
When temperatures become too high, risks such as grape sunburn increase. When conditions become too dry, water stress increases, heightening the potential risk of developing off-flavors like the petrol notes characteristic of Riesling.
Growing Divergence from Regulations
Currently, this situation remains within the range of heightened potential risks. However, if this situation progresses and risks actually materialize, it would contradict the criterion for obtaining high classifications: "the ability to harvest healthy grapes."
Additionally, influenced by the bottom-up effect, the suitability of vineyards in locations previously classified one level lower is increasing. They are becoming "optimal" vineyards.
The system has not kept pace with these developments.
Systematically, grand cru vineyards remain grand cru today as they were in the past, and premier cru vineyards remain premier cru. This persists despite actual concerns about quality decline in grand cru vineyards and the achievement of traditional grand cru quality in premier cru vineyards.
At present, quality standard systems based on vineyard location are diverging from the actual conditions of vineyards.
Summary | The Growing Difficulty of Grape Cultivation in Prime Locations
Up to this point, I have discussed how vineyards in locations traditionally considered prime are experiencing increased potential risks due to climate change effects. I have explained how this reality is creating divergence from existing systems.
From a grower's perspective, however, this is in some ways irrelevant.
Classification systems are important and meaningful from a marketing strategy standpoint. However, from the perspective of actual grape cultivation, they hold little meaning. Certainly, excellent vineyards suitable for the purpose are necessary to produce high-quality grapes. No matter how hard one works on land unsuitable for cultivation, there is no winning against grapes from excellent vineyards given the same effort.
On the other hand, wherever one attempts to cultivate grapes, some difficulties will accompany the endeavor. Once a vineyard is established, moving to another location is not easily accomplished. Whatever happens, one must work with that land.
Therefore, if climate continues to change and vineyard characteristics evolve, so be it.
The problem is that growers must adapt to these changes.
Implementing measures to address conditions that were previously considered favorable but are now becoming excessive represents something with few precedents. Accordingly, responses require flexible thinking and ingenuity. After all, while efforts were previously focused on receiving stronger sunlight and improving drainage, completely opposite approaches are now necessary.
Approaches based on "this land is like this, so this is fine" will no longer suffice.
Previously, vineyards in locations classified as high-grade could secure quality above a certain level without extensive cultivation efforts, thanks to the bottom-up effect of their location. However, going forward, vineyards in such locations will increasingly require creativity and ingenuity.
Moreover, wines produced from such land continue to bear the great expectations of drinkers based on their high classifications. Optimal solutions must be found while maintaining the trust of society and customers.
We are entering an era where growers will be tested more severely on their abilities as cultivators.
