‘They’ve got microbats!’ I shouted, excitedly, to my husband in the other room. Everyone’s got a different thing that hooks their interest in any scenario – and it turns out mine is microbats.
When we talk about the need for climate adaptation in the vineyard, or about winemakers who are shifting their practices towards more sustainable or even regenerative practices, it can be hard to connect. As wine drinkers in the UK, the closest we get to a vineyard is usually pictures on a website or descriptions on a shelf label. If we lived in a country or region where winemaking was not only present but widespread and local, we’d be experiencing some of the same challenges in our everyday life – the same uncomfortably rising temperatures, tricky irregular rainfall or crushing drought – and we’d easily connect the dots to the impact on vineyards and the resulting wine.
Finding your way into the fascinating and important work going on in the vineyards
As it is, we need an extra reason, our own hook to transport us from opening our favourite bottle right back to the land where it’s made, to see the challenging conditions for the vines and understand the true significance both for the people making it and for us as wine lovers, wherever we are in the world.
Luckily, watching The Society’s latest series of Climate Adaptation Webinars (this is the third year that they have run these free events for winemakers), it quickly became obvious that there is a way in for everyone.
If, like me, animals are your thing, there are more creatures involved in sustainable winemaking than a David Attenborough documentary. Craig Harris from Klein Constantia in South Africa took part in the pests and disease webinar, and sees wildlife as an inevitable part of the winery, most of it welcome. ‘The more we do things that are soft on nature, the more nature reveals itself’ says Craig, describing the pigs that help by chomping on weeds around the vineyard (although apparently they’re not known for their precision focus…) and the cows who wander in and out of the vines.
Not everyone is invited to the biodiverse party – the local baboons have to be seen off by a crack team of guards before they polish off the grapes and the vital cover crops which protect the soil. As known vineyard destroyers, the local Cape white-eye bird and the banded fruit weevil are similarly off the guest list. However, over in Italy, there’s a zoological VIP area – Daniel Fabbro from San Polino in Montalcino re-introduced a locally extinct breed of spider to keep down the problematic population of vineyard mites. They had been using powdered sulphur in large quantities – this was working to an extent but also harming the vines, so they stopped the sulphur and brought the spiders back to the vineyards. The result? Mite free in a matter of weeks. And, of course, lots of vineyards encourage bats (micro and otherwise) to snack on local pests, keeping insect populations in check.
For those of you who are more into New Scientist than National Geographic, there is no shortage of solutions driven by innovative research and technology. Dr Mary Retallack opened the pest and disease webinar outlining how her academic work as an agricultural scientist and agroecologist offers vital insight to better vine resilience. One of her seams of research involves measuring the Brix level of the grapes, the sugar concentration of the liquid inside. Most winemakers use this measurement to ensure grapes are only picked when the sugar level means the grapes will be at their most delicious. Dr Retallack is measuring the opposite effect; she uses Brix levels as a way to cleverly ensure grapes are least attractive to pests. When grapes reach the higher Brix levels, insects find them less interesting and are less tempted to attack.
Harnessing hard data to combat heat and drought and manage water use better
Pepe Mendoza spoke in the session on combatting increasing temperatures – he has run a meteorological station in his vineyards for the last thirty years meaning he has a rigorous set of data to inform his plans for the future. He uses this data to deal with the increasingly hot climate in the south of Spain, experimenting with exact quantity of vines planted per hectare in order to balance sustainable water usage with producing high quality grapes.
Professor Greg Jones from the University of Oregon uses data on a larger scale, modelling regional and global weather and climate patterns. In the webinar about irregular rainfall, he talked about the different challenges of long-term drought (over a decade for example) versus shorter term drought and the stress they both cause to the vines. He’s also used meteorological data to identify hydro-climatic volatility, which he described as a kind of whiplash of the atmosphere where weather conditions turn over more quickly. Gautier Rousille from Domaine Guillemot-Michel also spoke on rainfall – he is now trialling UV light treatments that ‘vaccinate’ the vines and help them deal with drought conditions.
Whatever piques your interest most, there’s one reason that should engage all of us – better wine. Climate change has already had a significant effect on vineyards the world over, and this ultimately shows in the grapes. In order to keep producing the best wine, winemakers and viticulturalists must have an understanding of how an unpredictable climate is impacting their vines, and how they can harness biodiverse, zoological, scientific and technological solutions to sustainably help their vineyards become more resilient, and keep making wines that we love to drink.
If you still need a way into sustainability, you’re welcome to share mine. They’re tiny, furry and exceptionally cute, work silently and quickly at night, and are capable of eating over 1,000 small insects in just one hour, as well as boosting environmental biodiversity with zero vineyard impact. Let’s all raise a glass of delicious, sustainably produced wine to the microbat.
