Note from Barcelona Climate Change and Wine Conference

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It’s been two years since the first Climate Change and Wine Conference, and as the second conference -- held, like the first, in Barcelona -- got started Friday morning, it was clear that as far as global warming issues relating to winemaking, two years is a lifetime.

The 2006 gathering of 70 was dominated by a handful of hard-core scientists eagerly making the case that Earth is warming. The audience was skeptical. Today’s conference attracted 350 winemakers, wine marketers, wine consultants and, yes, a handful of scientists. (Program details at http://www.cambioclimaticoyvino.com/eng/index.php.) Everyone is quick to say it’s a shame the world is warming. But not everyone thinks it is a bad thing for wine. The influx of sponsorship money means some of the sessions are devoted to companies with little to add to the discussion but lots to gain by an association with the ‘green wine’ movement. And there are folks here, including international wine consultant Michel Rolland, who declare global warming to be a gift from Bacchus. Picking through the hype to find the substance can be tricky.

An early takeaway was a real estate tip from Dr. Richard Smart, a leading viticultural authority from Australia. The smart money, he said, is betting on China. Warming temperatures have brought land just north of Bejing into play as a viticultural zone. ‘China is lucky,’ he says. ‘The warming temperatures are opening up new regions.’ Also on Smart’s viticultural real estate tip list in a warming world: Chile, Argentina, Tasmania and New Zealand. The Southern Hemisphere is dominated by oceans, which mitigate the effects of global warming, he says. These places down under won’t suffer the temperature shifts that could make life difficult in more established wine regions in the Northern Hemisphere. In each of these regions, it is possible to plant vineyards at elevations 100 meters higher than current plantings. Or they have cool coastal vineyard regions or the ability to move their viticultural zones south, toward Antarctica.

In California, our booming wine business is going to be fighting for a foothold in an ever narrowing slice of the coast. Ouch.

-- Corie Brown