Short Wave - Solutions Week: Climate Change Is Coming For Your Wine

Episode Date: September 9, 2024

In California's Napa Valley, the nation's unofficial wine capital, one varietal reigns supreme: cabernet sauvignon. But climate change is threatening the small blue-black grapes for which cabernet sauvignon is named. Increasingly severe heat waves are taking a toll on the grape variety, especially in late summer during ripening.To kick off NPR's Climate Solutions Week, climate correspondent Lauren Sommer joins host Regina G. Barber for a deep dive into the innovations wineries are actualizing — and the ways that cabernet farmers and fans alike could learn to adapt.Climate change is affecting our food, and our food is affecting the climate. NPR is dedicating a week to stories and conversations about the search for solutions.Read more of Lauren's reporting on how climate change is affecting wine. Interested in hearing more climate solutions? Email us at [e-mail] pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. Hey, Shr Wavers, Regina Barbara here. So when you go into a wine store or a supermarket, looking for a bottle of wine, what do you get? Do you head for the Pino-N-N-R section or the Chardonnay section? Lauren Summer from NPR's Climate Desk is here to make you think twice about that. Yes, because those are the names of the grapes. Wait, so Pino-N-N-R, that's the name of the grape? Yeah, it is.

I feel like I should have known that. I feel like I should have known that. it's confusing because we've actually been trained to choose wines by the grape it's made of, at least U.S. wines. Okay. And there are many wine grapes that you probably don't know. Like, I actually went to see some of them. This is Charbono. So Charbono is one of the more kind of similar grape varieties to Cabernet, I would say.

That's Avery Heelan, winemaker at Larkmead Vineyards in Napa Valley. We were walking among rows of vines with Charbono grapes. Okay. That's definitely one I've never heard of. I've never heard of Charbono wine. Yeah, most people haven't. And that's not the only one I saw there. From Portugal, we planted Tariga National.

From Spain, we took Temprenio. Italy even, we have Alianico. Okay, so they've got some international varieties in there. I mean, I don't usually associate those with, like, wine from Napa Valley or California. No, because in Napa Valley, there is one wine that's king. Cabernet Sauvignon. That's the one I drink. That's my go-to.

Yeah. I mean, that's what made Napa famous. It's what brings in the big bucks. But the climate is getting hotter. Heat waves are getting more intense, and that's threatening Cabernet. So Avery is looking for grape varieties that do better in heat. You know, we have to adapt. We can't just pretend that it's going to go away because all we see is each year, it's getting more and more extreme.

But it's a risk to think about new grapes because consumers like cavernate and buy cavernate like you. Yes. Unknown wines, they don't get the same prices. So across Napa Valley, there's a big debate about what to do. Today on the show, how a hotter climate is hitting the country's most famous wine region. And what we should know, as wine drinkers, about how things might change. This is the first episode of Climate Solutions Week at NPR, where reporters from around the country are bringing you stories about this year's theme, food, how it affects the climate and how the changing climate affects our food. You're listening to Shortwave. The Science Podcast from NPR. Okay, so Lauren, I mean, I love red wine.

Like I said, Cabernet-Sylvignon in particular. And I know that climate is going to, like, worsen life way beyond my comfort wine. But, like, how is climate change already affecting that wine? Yeah. So Cabernet is a very popular wine. In fact, it's the most planted wine grape in the world. Larkney Vineyards, a Napa Valley winery I visited,

is known for its cabernets. always has a lot of really bright fruit that range from kind of red florals to dark, inky, purple, violets, and blues. I love those colors. I mean, delicious. Yeah. But Avery actually says the past few years have been a wake-up call. The day I went, it was hot for sure.

But it was nothing like how it's been recently. In 2022, there was an extreme heat wave right at the end of the summer. That's a critical time because that's when the grapes are ripen, and developing their flavors before they're picked in the fall. The highest temperature we had was like 119.7. Wow. Which I feel like I've reserved the right to round up to 120 degrees and just call it what it is. But it's just too hot.

Like it's too hot for humans. It's definitely too hot for grapefines. Are people actually working in the vineyards in that weather? Yeah. Avery says that's a big concern for them because there is a lot to do in those dangerous conditions. So it's something they're really trying to minimize. Okay, that's good to know. So they're trying to minimize it, but what's happening to the grapes in that weather?

So the vines basically shut down. When it gets hot, the vines, they're done. Okay? Time to go dormant. And when that happens, they're not ripening anymore. It is what it is. You're just like basically watching it dehydrate over time. And she means that.

The grapes actually get wrinkly like raisins. I mean, and that must affect the flavor of the wine, right? Like raisin wine doesn't sound that good. No, no. I mean, you get a sweeter wine. more alcoholic. And the compounds in the grape that make, you know, that deep red kind of purpley color, those break down in the heat too. So that affects the aroma and the color of the wine. So a few years ago, the winery started an experiment. They put in a research vineyard and put in

some of those international grapes, the lesser known ones, the one that Avery mentioned earlier, and they took out some prized cavernet vines to do it. Which most people would probably think is a little crazy, considering it's three acres of perfect Cabernet land. But certainly with the climate and how dramatically it's changed over the last even 10 years, we really have to start adjusting. So does she want to switch to those other grapes and make completely different wines? Avery says they're open-minded, but the idea is to find other grapes to blend with the heat-affected cavernate, you know, to make up for what it might lack.

So maybe grapes that can add acidity to balance out that sweetness or add a dark color back. And, you know, these are grapes that do better in heat because they come from hotter wine-growing regions. Okay, that sounds reasonable. So it sounds like you can still get a nice cabernet at the store even with climate change. Well, yes and no. That cavernate shelf, it might look kind of different in the future. And I talk to someone who knows about this, Elizabeth Forrestal. She's an assistant professor at UC Davis who studies how heat affects wine.

We met up in her lab. So this is not quite as busy as it usually is. Her research team was taking these big Ziploc bags of cavernet grapes and like smushing them, basically mashing them up into juice. I mean, this sounds like fun, actually. Yeah, it's like very squishy. It's because those grapes are going to be analyzed at the molecular level to see how the compounds are changing with heat.

Elizabeth's team, they're taking samples all summer long because they're trying to get a real-time view of how this happens. It's funny. We all want heat waves. I mean, not completely. We're like, we just need one more heat wave in August, which sounds terrible. I mean, how else are they going to study it? I understand. Right, yeah, you've got to see it.

She's actually going to use this data to forecast how wine growing regions could shift in the future. You know, like some areas may not be the best places for Cabernet anymore. And she says Naba winem winemakers may need more ways to adapt. like blending with other grapes. The problem is, if you blend with a lot of other grapes, you aren't actually a cabernet anymore. The rule in the U.S. is that you have to have 75% cabernet grapes to get that name on your label. Wow. Otherwise, it has to say red blend.

But, I mean, I like red blends. I buy those a lot, too. Still good wine, right? Yes. Definitely. But it doesn't command the same prices at the store, Elizabeth says. You have a perception that a blend is not as high quality as getting that high quality cabernet. And they're not in the same price point.

So it is a big shift. Okay, I see. So even if wineries are still making delicious wine, but blending like these other grapes with cabernet, it's still this financial risk. Because consumers won't understand the change and won't pay as much for that wine. Yeah, especially Napa Valley wines, which can cost, you know, hundreds of dollars per bottle. Oh, wow. And, you know, what's interesting about this is that it's less of a problem for wines from other countries like France. Because some of the most famous cabernet wines there, like Bordeaux, they aren't actually labeled by the name of the grape.

They're labeled with the region it's from, which is Bordeaux. Right. So this is why I was surprised by that it was the name of the grape because, you know, I thought about regions. But I guess there is like a totally different shelf for these, like, international wines and these, like, U.S. wines. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, this choice that U.S. winemakers made to use the name of the grape, they actually made that choice a long time ago when the industry was really getting going in the U.S. It just didn't have the prestige of those European wines, like old world wines, as they call them. So U.S. winemakers thought it would kind of show the quality of their wines and really helped demystify wine to use that grape name instead of the region. You know, but in France, Bordeaux wines, they're actually already red blends. And if they should, you Shift the mix of those grapes a little bit, it's just less noticeable. In fact, French authorities recently authorized four more red grapes to go into a Bordeaux wine, ones that actually deal better with heat. So it could be even like more of a blend coming from France.

And most consumers would like not have any idea. Right, exactly. Okay. So given the consumer taste for the Cabernet, like label, how do U.S. winemakers like deal with this? Are they going to start blending more? Yeah, it's really tricky. I mean, Napa wineries bring in billions of dollars a year, so any change is risky. And I actually went to another winery that's banking on a different way of adapting to this.

There's nothing like Great Cabernet, yeah, for sure. Yeah. That's Elias Fernandez. He's the winemaker at Schaefer Vineyards in Napa Valley, which is also known for its cabernets. The hillsides there are covered in long rows of it with these kind of like bunches of purple graves, and he actually picked up a cluster to show me. See, like, this has been really exposed. Look at the backside. There were kind of these, like, small green grapes where there should be purple grapes.

Oh, okay. So this is the effects of the heat, right? So it's not maturing? Right, not maturing. You know, this July was the hottest July on record in California. So Elias says they're going to install technology to help the grapes through the heat. Water misters. So they're just going to like spritz the grapes to keep them cool.

I mean, basically, that's how Elias described it. You know, I mean, how many of you have been to a party when they have misters or something, right? Didn't that feel good? Well, that's what the vines are feeling, yeah. But, you know, that uses water, and that's tough in a drought-prone state like California. And then if he turns the misters off, it actually leaves droplets sitting on the grapes. And that can actually concentrate the sunlight and burn the grapes. Oh, my God.

Yeah, so you have to leave the misters on until the sunset so the water keeps moving and doesn't settle. Okay, so will these watermisters get Cabernet through this extreme heat? It's tough to tell at this point. I mean, Elias says they're trying to buy time for the grapes and see how this plays out. But as of now, he's not thinking about doing what the other winery did, which is planting new varieties of grapes. I mean, Cabernet is the foundation of their business. For me, it's hard to think that people are just going to throw Cabernet out the door and plant something else. I mean, I really do.

I mean, it's a king of the wines of the world. then we'll figure out how to handle Mother Nature in other ways. It feels like this is a kind of like chicken and egg thing going on. Like if winemakers are waiting for consumers to change, they're going to be waiting a long time. Yeah. Yeah. And the problem is that the grapevines produce for decades, you know, 50 years or more. So winemakers actually have to decide now what they want their business to look like over that time period.

And they have to consider what the climate might do during that time period. Okay. So what can consumers do then if we want to help? help the world adapt to climate change, at least with our wine. With our wine drinking, yeah. I mean, the advice I got in reporting this story is to be open. So don't buy what you always buy. You know, drink what you like and not what you think you're supposed to like.

And, you know, maybe try something new. I mean, I am totally open to trying something new. I can get behind that. Lauren, thank you so much for this story. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers to those new wine blends that we're going to try.

Hey, shortwavers. a reminder that this is just day one of Climate Solutions Week. We'll drop a link in our episode notes if you want to check out more of NPR's coverage. And consider following us so you never miss a new episode. This episode was produced by Hannah Chin and edited by our showrunner Rebecca Ramirez. Tyler Jones checked the facts. The audio engineer was James Willits. Betz Onovan is our senior director and Colin Campbell is our senior vice president of podcasting strategy.

I'm Regina Barber. Thanks for listening to Shorewave. from NPR.