Climate change impacts on grapevine

by Iñaki Garcia de Cortazar-Atauri

Wine grapes (Vitis vinifera L.), as other perennial species, are especially sensitive to climate change, with potential effects on yield, quality and economic viability. Since grapevine has been cultivated, specific growing regions were established, whose climatic conditions played a decisive role in the development of typical wines from specific varieties and cultural practices. Many reports show that grapevine will be affected by climate change over the world. Moreover, whereas some new regions could become suitable for viticulture, in others hydric comfort or/and too high temperatures would have negative impacts. Ripening would occur under much warmer conditions than today, with major impacts on berry content and its suitability to elaborate the current types of wines.
The objective of this presentation is to present some examples of the impact of climate change on grapevine observed during the last years and describe which adaptation strategies can be explored to adapt it for the future climatic conditions.