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'The last 10 vintages at Cos d'Estournel have been the
best ever,' said Bruno Prats, former owner of the second growth in St.
Estephe. 'In the 1970s, all our vintages needed chaptalisation. In the
1990s, I had to chaptalise, and use reverse osmosis on half of the vintages.
Today, none of the vintages need anything.' Incidentally, Cos is a popular
brand in India , especially in the hotels where premium wines are sold.
Chaptalisation has a tradition in Bordeaux. Because of
the cold weather, grapes do not mature fully sometimes and do not have
enough sugar for the fermentation. The laws in many countries including
France, Germany etc allow for the addition of sugar to help complete the
process, known as chaptalisation. Reverse osmosis is used to drain off
some of the excess alcohol; allowed but not usually talked about by the
winemakers as the consumer knowledge of it somehow drains a bit of romance
from the bottle.
Rolland contended that it was too early to tell what
effect climate change has had so far or to predict its negative impact.
'The fact that the wine tastes different today than it did years ago can
be attributed to many factors,' he argued. 'The role of global warming
has been overplayed.'
Rolland also talked about better canopy management and
advances in science and technology and the evolving consumer tastes.
'I know climate change is happening, but it is not affecting
how we make wine today,' he said. 'We have more sugar because we want
more sugar. We have silky tannins because we work better in the vineyard
and in the winery, removing the greenness.'
To illustrate that it is impossible to isolate global
warming as the culprit for the prevalence of more ripe and fruity wines,
Rolland and Lurton organised a blind tasting of 10 wines from France,
Spain and Belgium with around 350 tasters at the conference. The group
was quite representative of the wine industry and also included a few
MWs.
The group could not really identify grape varieties,
let alone countries or regions that might have suggested that there wines
have been affected by the global warming.
Closer at home, a view similar to that of Michel Rolland,
is expressed by the wine producers. Most of them are neither aware nor
concerned as they have been in business for too short a period. Kapil
Grover, Director of Grover Vineyards, who has been in wine business for
more than a decade, agrees with Rolland’s view point. ‘I don’t
think climate change is of concern for us at this point and we have not
seen any negative impact so far. I agree with Michel’s view.
Rajeev Samant. Chairman of Sula has an interesting observation,
‘ it’s too early to say anything. What we are doing is gathering
historical climate data in our region, Nasik, and starting to map the
trend. Maharashtra would be affected adversely in the case of climate
change, but parts of North India would become more suitable for grapes.
So for the country as a whole, the jury is out.’
Another interesting reaction comes from our regular reader,
Avatar Singh Sandhu who is an engineer from India, producing wine in Sonoma,
California since 1978 and owns Mushal Winery.‘ There is too much
hulla-balloo about the climate change in the world today,’ he told
delWine. ‘We seem to be too concerned about warming. But how do
you explain the unprecedented snow storms in China or the unexpected storms
in New York and the east coast last week?’ he asks. Even Delhi has
had a very cold winter this year.
‘Weather and Climate are not easy subjects to deal
with,’ says Sandhu who is considered a maverick by many in the industry.
‘ For wine grape growers in California the impact of 'El Nino',
'La Nina' and non-El-Nino (neutral), impact the weather pattern and quality
of grapes and are of far greater concern than Global Warming or Climate
Change’. ‘If you visit the web site of the US National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration you will find information,’ he advises
those who are more interested in the technical side of subject.
Sandhu should know. When the world renowned Dr. Richard
Smart visited his vineyards, he was very happy to see his vineyard management
and told him to carry on the way he was doing. Those were highly complimentary
remarks from the world known authority on viticulture, who was also a
speaker on the opening day of the Conference.
Subhash Arora
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