Café des idées

In partnership with Alliance Française Wellington, we invite you to join the conversation with Anne Escalle and Herve Quenol on the Adaptation of Vineyards to climate change. The new format of the café scientifique “cybercafé des idées” offers the possibility to connect online as long as you register (link to register) or eventually to come at the Alliance Française premises in Wellington on Friday 13th November at 5.30 pm.

Adaptation of vineyards to climate change

Most of studies on vine’s climate adaptability under different climate change scenarios show  that  we  can  expect  major  upheavals  at  global  level,  with  the  disappearance  of  some  wine-growing  regions  by  2100. These  studies,  based  specifically  on  climate  simulation,  propose fairly  “brutal”  methods  to  adapt  to  climate  change,  for  instance  moving  wine-growing regions.  Studies  on  the  impact  of  climate  change  only  cover  major  global  wine  regions, however,  without  taking  into  account  the  spatial  variability  of  climate  on  finer  scales. However, a wine’s specific features are also determined by local scale variations (e.g. slope, exposure, type of soil, etc.), and it is at the scale of the plot that winemakers manage their estate and adapt to the climate, notably by agricultural practices (tillage, work on the vine, etc.). The spatial variability of climate at local scale should therefore be taken into account when defining a rational climate change adaptation policy.