Taking action

Climate Seminars: Water management

In April, we ran a series of webinars designed to bring some of the greatest minds in sustainable viticulture together to educate and inspire our producers. To give members an insight into the most important issues our winemakers are dealing with, here is a summary of the water management seminar.

Anna Spooner

Anna Spooner

Climate Seminars: Water management

How do winemakers manage water in the vineyards? Is too much water as bad as not enough water? Why is the right amount of water important for vines? 

For our session on water management, there was no other speaker in the world we wanted more than Cornelis (Kees) van Leeuwen of Bordeaux Sciences Agro, the leading global expert on water deficit and stress. We were also thrilled to welcome Fernando Alves from Symington Family Estates in the hot, arid landscape of the Douro Valley in Portugal and John Atkinson MW who is the viticultural consultant at Danbury Ridge in Essex who also have water deficit challenges of their own. 

Water deficit vs water stress 

Kees spoke of the difference between stress and deficit. He highlighted that water deficit can actually improve the quality of wine (with evidence of increased aromas) but that it also has some negative impact on the yield. So, while water stress can be damaging to the vine and the quality of the end product, carefully managed deficit is a desirable thing.

What can you do to manage water? 

The two main ways water can be managed for the vine are through its access to water in the soil and the control of its loss of water through transpiration. Kees highlighted key tactics that can be used in both systems, including changing rootstocks to influence water uptake to changing canopy sizing to influence transpiration.

Why does it matter?

According to Kees, modern mechanisation and viticultural techniques have made vineyards less adapt at managing drought conditions, especially in the Mediterranean where trellised vines which are easier to spray or even pick by machine have replaced the traditional bush vines. With increasingly erratic weather due to climate change and greater drought incidences, it’s more important than ever to be able to manage water effectively.

What does water management look like in the Douro Valley?

Fernando Alves explained the challenges that the Douro Valley – one of the wine world’s driest regions – is currently facing. Rain that once fell in February or March when growers needed it most is now falling in October or November, leaving long stretches of water stress.

Given the severity of the problem, Fernando’s research and development team have invested in tools to help them monitor and work on the solutions. This includes their own weather stations; satellite imagery; drone imagery; leaf water potential indicators; sap flow systems (for real-time readings); dendrometry and more. From this research they have developed strategies including creating grapevine libraries of varieties to test drought resistance, changing to their pruning techniques and even irrigation experiments. 

What about the ‘wetter’ UK?

While we might not immediately think of the UK as a region where water deficit is a contributing factor in viticulture, John Atkinson MW of Danbury Ridge proved us wrong. 

John described the ‘London clay’ soils in his patch of East Anglia as an inert ‘cul-de-sac’ that lies at the end of physical and chemical erosion. Combining that with the surprisingly low rainfall in his region (445mm a year) and sunshine hours comparable to Chablis means that he sees opportunities in the current climate but potential challenges in the future.

He described 2020 as the ‘wake-up vintage’. A warm summer was followed with daily rains going into harvest through September – one Saturday there was 100mm of rain in one day. With the help of Kees’s research, John was able to understand that these clay soils provided a very effective buffer to this variable weather. This was followed by a season long water deficit in 2021 (although it was cooler) and many producers in the UK couldn’t produce anything if they were planted on chalk, whereas the clays continued to thrive.

Hope for the future

Water management is a neglected topic within UK viticulture. Understanding the hydric buffering properties of soils and bedrock is becoming an increasing priority given future climatic projections. The expansive clays of estuarine Essex provide a good case study in how site selection may mitigate the negative effects of drought and deluge in the future.  

Footnote: 

Want to find out more about our producer seminars? You can read about biodiversity, gentle pruning and hybrids on our sustainability hub.

Radford Dale is just one of our producers with a more sustainable approach to winemaking. Explore our whole selection of producers making a difference.

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Anna Spooner

Tastings & Events co-ordinator

Anna Spooner

One of our Tastings & Events co-ordinators, Anna came to us 2017 having worked as a freelance wine educator and writer. When able to, she spends a fair amount of time in the Rhône as her parents live there: ‘it continues to surprise me. There is no pretence or pomp and everyone is just desperate to share their wines with you.’

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