< French Winemakers Welcome Warmer Summers

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Heard on Morning Edition

August 6, 2007 - RENEE MONTAGNE, host:

Our yearlong series on climate change with National Geographic moves to Europe this month, where the south in the grip of a heat wave. Back in 2003, summer temperatures in France broke all records, and such heat may be a glimpse of what the future holds as the planet warms.

But it's not all bad news. For Climate Connections NPR's Joe Palca visited the town of St. Emilion in Bordeaux. It lies in the heart of a region that produces one of the things France is most famous for.

JOE PALCA: Beside just about every road in St. Emilion there are grapevines, row upon row of exquisitely manicured grapevines.

Mr. FRANCOIS DESPAGNE (Winemaker, Chateau Grand Corbin Despagne): It is impossible to produce good wines without good grapes.

PALCA: Francois Despagne is the vigneron, the winemaker, at Chateau Grand Corbin Despagne. He's a compact man with a friendly face and a receding hairline. His family has been living in the Bordeaux wine region since the 16th century. If you follow strict rules about how you grow your grapes, you can qualify for an appellation, such as Margaux or St. Emilion. That's the French grading system for how and where you grow your wine. The main grape variety in St. Emilion is merlot. In Francois Despagne's case…

Mr. DESPAGNE: 75 percent merlot, 24 cabernet franc and one percent of cabernet sauvignon.

PALCA: On a cloudy late afternoon, as we wander pass some of his 200,000 plants on 53 different plots, Despagne explains that French wines are so special because French winemakers pay almost religious attention to something the French call terroir.

Mr. DESPAGNE: The terroir is the weather and the soil. It's not only the soil. Many people say the terroir is in the soil. No. It is the combination between the weather and the soil.

PALCA: The soil in Bordeaux is a mix of gravelly dirt and clay, perfect for grapevine growth. The weather is good, too. Not too much rain, enough summer sun for the grapes to mature. But the weather varies considerably from year to year.

Mr. DESPAGNE: It is the reason why our vintage are very different each year. You know, for example, 1988 is beautiful but it is a very beautiful vintage, '89 too and '90 too. But they are very different. It is like three children. They are your children but they are not the same.

PALCA: But something else is happening in addition to the annual variation. Harvests have been coming earlier and grapes have had more sugar because, on average, summers have been getting warmer. At least in the short run, that's a good thing for Bordeaux because a warm, dry August is a good thing for wine.

Take Chateau Ausone. The Ausone vineyards are just outside the walls of St. Emilion's medieval city, just below the Romanesque church. They're on a southeast-facing hill, so the grapes are bathed in the warm morning sun. The 2005 vintage hasn't appeared in stores yet, but if you want to buy the rights to a bottle when it does come out, it will set you back around 1,800 bucks. That's for one bottle. And global warming could send the prices even higher. Alain Vauthier is the owner of Chateau Ausone.

Mr. ALAIN VAUTHIER (Owner, Chateau Ausone): (Through translator) I very sincerely think that, right now, global warming is very favorable in Bordeaux. We're getting more and more great vintages. We have very sweet grapes like those that we want for great years, such as '47, '61 and '82.

PALCA: Could it get too hot?

Mr. VAUTHIER: (Through translator) In 30 or 50 years I don't know what the climate will be. But we'll see. Actually, I won't see because I'm too old.

PALCA: Most winemakers won't be getting thousands of dollars for their 2005 vintages. Francois Despagne's 2005 wine will cost about 30 bucks a bottle. And he's not as certain global warming will be good for St. Emilion. But Despagne says the wines of Bordeaux have changed over the years, sometimes because of disease, sometimes because people's tastes have changed.

Mr. DESPAGNE: If in 10 years, 20 years, with plus one or two degrees, our wine change a little. Perhaps it is possible to say it is more Mediterranean wines. But Bordeaux, for me, can adapt.

PALCA: As he speaks, Francois Despagne's hands clasp together and his eyes dart upwards as if checking with a higher authority about his predictions both for this year and for the future.

And even without divine intervention, there are growing techniques that could be modified to account for warmer temperatures. Right now, for example, it's common to remove leaves from the grapevines so the fruit gets more exposure to the sun. Perhaps in future the leaves will stay on longer. And maybe it won't be necessary to remove as many grapes from the plants. Stephane Aplebaum is the vigneron at Chateuau Quercy.

Mr. STEPHANE APLEBAUM (Vigneron, Chateuau Quercy): A plant like this can produce 25 bunches of berries.

PALCA: Like most vignerons I spoke with, Aplebaum refers to the grapes as berries. If you let all 25 bunches of berries stay on the vine until harvest, you get tedious fruit. There's not enough sun and water for that many grapes to reach a magnificent ripeness. So while the grapes are still green, most are sacrificed. Aplebaum bent down to show me how he decides what to keep.

Mr. APLEBAUM: You see, for example, here you have three berries on the same bunch. Okay. Here is one, two. But this one is better because it doesn't touch this one. So this one's going to be removed, and this one too. Actually, we cut down 75 percent of our crop throughout the year.

PALCA: Maybe with global warming there will be enough sun to ripen more of the berries and make more wine per plant.

(Soundbite of door closing)

PALCA: Aplebaum takes me into the room where his 2005 vintage was still in barrels. It's deliciously cool in here, with a faint oaky, yeasty smell. Although the room only holds barrels, there is artwork on the walls. Wine is art, Aplebaum explains. He says dealing with the changing climate is part of being a winemaker.

Mr. APLEBAUM: When I taste my wines and old vintages, amazingly I remember the weather, I remember the stress, I remember some fights I maybe had with some of my people working for me and things like that. Everything is told into the bottle of the wine.

PALCA: Some have suggested that global warming will prompt Bordeaux winemakers to head north to look for climates more like what they're used to. Stephane Aplebaum says that won't happen.

Mr. APLEBAUM: Because people are very anchored into their own appellation they are going to stay here. No, no, no, no. We'll probably have to change. Maybe we're going to plant syrah, a grape plant variety which is forbidden today. But maybe we'll have to change that. But for the moment people don't seem to worry so much about it. They just adapt themselves.

PALCA: And probably they'll always be a market for wines produced with such devotion.

Joe Palca, NPR News.

MONTAGNE: After visiting Bordeaux, Joe Palca travels south to see what a warmer future might hold for winemakers in Spain. You can hear that story later today on ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.

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