Climate change is redrawing Europe’s wine maps and changing wine culture.
In Spain, an ancient winemaking culture is looking at how best to secure its future. Ronda’s first winemakers – in the mountains above Malaga – were retired troops from Julius Caesar’s Civil War. All the way back in 45BC. Today their descendants are working out how to adapt and keep making wine more than 2000 years later.
Twenty years ago it seemed fanciful to plant vineyards on the Swedish island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea. Today Gotland now has two thriving vineyards. And the Sweden mainland has a vibrant wine tourism business with scores of vineyards.
The impact of climate change on wine is about more than adapting to warmer vintages. Growing seasons are shorter. They’re more variable too. And the grapes wine regions can grow and the styles of wine they can produce are changing. Even in some of Europe’s most venerable appellations.
But climate change means more than different ways of making wine too. It means different ways of selling wine, and marketing it, and moving wine from vineyard to customer.
That means understanding how to turn Swiss Malbec from a curio to an accepted and appreciated premium wine. It means understanding that while German vineyards are making smaller volumes of wine, they’re making wines with more concentration and minerality. And in turn, understanding how to shift perceptions of German wine.
Europe’s white wine regions are moving to red. Marginal and mountainous regions are becoming more mainstream. These are all winemaking challenges. But they are also cultural and communication opportunities.
At Activequity, we believe in looking beyond the headlines of climate change and wine. We are looking at where premium wine is coming from today, and tomorrow. What are the future classics? What are the changing styles? What are the new stories? And how we play our part in building a more resilient premium wine industry capable of adapting to such changes.
