Climate Change forces wine grape harvest to shift in France and Switzerland, says NASA

A recent study by NASA, which dates from 1600 to 2007, shows that wine grape harvest timings in France and Switzerland made a major drastic shift in the last two-three decades than it ever did. These shifts are a result of changes in the connection between climate and harvest timing.

The earlier harvests from 1600 to 1980 happened in the years which had warmer and drier conditions during spring and summer.

But from 1981 to 2007 global warming triggered the climate change which in turn resulted in earlier harvests even in years without drought.

Even though this shift in harvest timings won’t do much damage as of now but it is important because higher-quality wines are typically associated with earlier harvest dates in cooler wine-growing regions, such as France and Switzerland.

“Wine grapes are one of the world’s most valuable horticultural crops and there is increasing evidence that climate change has caused earlier harvest days in this region in recent decades,” said Ben Cook, lead author and climate scientist at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.

There are numerous ways with which one can judge the quality of wine, such as wine ratings that show the best years for grape harvest typically includes warm summers with above-average rainfall early in the growing season and late-season drought.

Researchers at NASA analyzed this using 400 years of harvest data from Western Europe. The study considered changeability and drifts in harvest dates, climate data from instruments during the 20th century, and reconstructions from historical documents and tree rings of temperature, precipitation and soil moisture dating back to 1600.

The results point that the fundamental shift in the role of drought and moisture has a gigantic effect on the harvest time and wine quality. While warm temperatures have consistently led to earlier harvests and higher-quality wines, in recent years the impact of drought has disappeared as a result of mega shifts in climate.

“Wine quality also depends on a number of factors beyond climate, including grape varieties, soils, vineyard management and winemaker practices,” Ben Cook said. “However, our research suggests the large-scale climate drivers these local factors operate under have shifted. And that information may prove to be critical to wine producers as climate change will increase during the coming decades in France, Switzerland."

Originally published in NASA.gov

Image Credit: gizmodo.com