Dr Vino's wine blog

欧洲的情况正在升温——不仅仅是希腊。灼热的热浪把整个大陆卷在手里。

Burgundy, which is known for producing wines more winsome than boxum, will have four days in the 100s (39C+) this week–and the balance in the 90s. Yikes. Searing temperatures are expected in Bordeaux, Barolo, Brunello and Britain as well to name a few places starting with “B.”

一般来说，葡萄藤不喜欢过热。葡萄成熟过程中热浪来得越晚，处理起来就越困难。这个pamphlet(pdf) from Australia–no stranger to heat waves with a monster one in 2009 that pushed temperatures up over 100 for 14 days–states that the main effects are a loss of crop and reduction of quality. Mitigation strategies include irrigating vineyards during heatwaves, which may be an option in Barossa but not in Burgundy.

The last heat wave that had in impact on French wine was 2003, which was the hottest summer since 1540. The wines from that vintage got a lukewarm reception initially (except for the shootout at the St. Emilion Corral over the Pavie 2003) and they have aged poorly. Sadly, the 2003 heat wave also accounted for tens of thousands of deaths across France. Fortunately, that isn’t likely to be the casethis time around.

可悲的是，欧洲这样炎热的夏天可能会变得更加频繁，甚至commonplace” by the 2040s. In a study released last year, researchers from the Met Office, Britain’s weather service, predicted that once every five years Europe will have “a very hot summer.”

虽然现在说2015年的葡萄如何酿造还为时过早，但未来几天葡萄藤将面临高温胁迫。好机会。

Weather: it’s what you discuss in elevators or with the in-laws. But if you’re a winemaker or even a wine consumer, it can actually be pretty important.

在谈论葡萄酒界的天气时，事情变得越来越激烈。尤其是如果你在波尔多，那就是说，因为它是火地岛! Or something like that: The heat has been abnormally high and the降雨量远低于平均水平. So if the drought-like conditions keep up, the reduced supply of grapes could push wine prices even higher! Is it 2003 all over again? The vintage in Burgundy is also advanced.

By contrast, cut to the Auction Napa Valley this past weekend and people were breaking out the umbrellas rather than the sunscreen. Weather has been cool across the state. Rhys Vineyards has vineyards in more of the marginal weather areas of California and therefore is rightfully weather-obsessed, sotheir Twitter feed是一个极好的天气信息来源。他们位于海拔2300英尺的天际线葡萄园5月份的气温徘徊在49.6华氏度，成为1931年以来最冷的7个5月份之一；他们在推特上说，他们的葡萄枝大约落后两三英寸。他们说6月下旬的天气是结果子的关键，所以他们不想听起来阴沉。而继加州凉爽潮湿的2010年份葡萄酒之后，“高辛烷值”、“水果炸弹”的风格这些天正从四面八方夺走它。

今年早些时候，澳大利亚因昆士兰特大洪灾成为头条新闻。但即使是一些葡萄酒种植区也受到了“七年一遇”的暴雨的袭击，这些暴雨使未采摘的葡萄很快腐烂，在葡萄园和分类桌上都进行了大量的葡萄选择。悉尼先驱晨报explicitly linked“潮湿”的天气有助于降低酒精含量。

It’s weird that California and France appear to have flipped weather so far for 2011–there’s something you can talk about in your next elevator ride. Just don’t let the Mayans know since I think that was part of their their 2012 prophecy…