“Burgundy has got bigger and riper,” wine writer Robert Joseph told Reuters. “Alsace, in North East France, which used to make very light red wine, now makes much fuller red wine. Germany which used to very light red wine, is now making fuller red wine.”
My Annual Top 10 (or so)...
- 2008 JN Gagnard Chass.Blanchots
- 2008 JN Gagnard Chass.Caillerets
- 2009 Alex Gambal Savigny VV
- 2009 Ilan Charmes-Chambertin
- 2009 Lamy St.Aubin Edouard HD
- 2009 B.Leroux Chassage TdeClos
- 2008 Leroy Volnay Santenots
- 2008 Pascal Marchand Corton
- 2001 Pavillon Charlemagne
- 2009 DRC Corton
- 2009 Vougeraie Vougeot Cras
- (new wine...)
Yep, burgundy is a very good climate change proxy, see Historical phenology: Grape ripening as a past climate indicator, Isabelle Chuine, Pascal Yiou, Nicolas Viovy, Bernard Seguin, Valérie Daux & Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, Nature 432, 289-290, 18 November 2004. It goes back to 1370. (though the absence of tasting notes on, particularly, the earlier vintages, renders it of lesser interest to some).
Thanks a lot Philip.
I have a couple of references from producers for the last few decades that show a distinct advancement of harvest dates, but on the other hand there have been hotter and colder spells throughout the last 6-8 centuries.
So I suppose we may not conclusively say it’s global warming, but if we had meteo data for other areas/regions as detailed as the literature from Burgundy, it still might make a good PhD subject!