Ep.1997 VIA 2024 - Climate Change pt 1 of 3 | Everybody Needs A Bit Of Scienza

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Not something we can avoid anymore, but we need to look at it with a view towards being optimistic. It's not the first time that humanity has experienced climate change. Climate change has happened in the past in several different eras, and it possible for us to confront the challenges of climate change in various ways through changing our methods of Viticulture, through changing the varieties of grapes that we grow, and from adapting our vineyard practices and our celery practice So the point is that, yes, we are confronted with this difficult situation that is providing a lot of challenge and hopefully making a lot of innovation for us, but we can confront it optimistically and using the knowledge that we have. Phenomena, but also unpredictable events, a great sort of wave of unpredictability with very violent phenomenon such as the fires. We've seen a lot of flooding in recent years here in Italy. The very, very late snow in May of two thousand and nineteen, There's a fear of complete and total drought, you see in the bottom left hand picture. Is this possibly what our future looks like with no water at all? So we we can't just talk about climate change in terms of rising temperatures, but also these violent events that are unpredictable. We're talking about two thousand and twenty three last year, which was one of the hottest years ever recorded. And the problem is that this is no longer an isolated event. This is a trend. So we've seen temperatures rising. The overall global temperature has gone up one point five degrees Celsius, which is a huge, huge problem. But more frightening than that is if we approach two degrees, celsius as an overall global temperature increase, there will be extremely grave consequences, which we can't even forecast at the moment. Alinicio and Astoria. The the the So human civilization and human agriculture have been confronting climate events and climate changes since time began, really. What we have now in terms of agricultural technology is the result of centuries of work and centuries of development and innovation. We're always looking for solutions to the effect that climate has on our civilization and on our agriculture. And over the time that we've been a population that grows things in one place, we've seen a series of changes, you know, very cold eras, very hot eras, and back and forth over time. So we've been looking for solutions for these problems ever since we basically started planting things. So climate change has been with us, and our technology that we have today is based on developments that we've made while we've been confronting these challenges for centuries. Seminar in Toronto. That will make the the element. That's the problem. Okay. So it's the phenomena of the So we're looking at now the phenomenon of the small medieval glaciation. Typically between the years one thousand and one thousand nine hundred, it was favorable for agriculture. Agriculture expanded to the north. We expanded agriculture into the mountains. We were growing crops and olive trees at above one thousand meters above sea level. In the early one thousands, one thousand sixty six, when William the conqueror was in England. He celebrated his coronation with English wine. And at the same time, the Scottish Church in Scotland, my colleague Richard will be happy to hear this. They were using Scottish wine, for the mass celebration in their churches, and every person was given one glass of wine and a piece of bread for mass. So I think still same trends in Scotland these days in terms of what they're drinking, but It was wine that was being grown there. When we arrived around one thousand three hundred, so thirteen hundred, there was a strange phenomena, this very small medieval glaciation. So it got cold again. And we couldn't propagate seeds. We couldn't grow crops. We couldn't feed our population. What happened? People became very frightened. They became ill. They abandoned the countryside, nothing would grow. They were starving. They all moved into the cities. And this caused devastation. The Black plague arrived through from byzantium through the Genavese port. Fifty million people across Europe were killed by this disease, increasing the fear among the general population of Europe. So the combination of fear, disease, starvation, brought about another phenomenon, which we're all familiar with, bore, the hundred years war, the Spanish war, all of these incidents seem unrelated in history. But when we look at them in terms of climate change, it becomes clear that had we not had this period of extreme cold where we couldn't grow things that forced people from the country into the cities. This is what started sort of a snowball domino effect of all of these other incidents that seem unrelated. And Professor is pointing out that actually the climate change of the small medieval glaciation is what set all of these incidents in motion. So In seventeen eighty eight, the lagoon in Venice froze over. People were ice skating on it. They had cart horses on the lagoon. There was an ice road all the way from Turin in the east all the way to Venice. They were transporting goods on what was essentially a road made out of ice. So we had this period of extreme cold that caused fear that caused disease that caused war. All of these things were created because of the small medieval glaciation. Are you enjoying this podcast? There is so much more high quality wine content available for mama jumbo shrimp. Check out our new wine study maps or books on Italian wine. Including Italian wine unplugged, and much much more. Just visit our website, mama jumbo shrimp dot com. Now back to the show. We will need within. In Mariano. We're looking out where the median temperature sure that we have marked here at zero, we're looking at different periods of time where the temperature rose and where the temperature dropped. So in the first red box on the left, we're looking in the champagne region, the temperature went up one degree to one point two, almost to one point four degrees. And at this point, Pino noir was maturing very, very well producing wonderful wines in that region. When we arrive, closer to middle of the fourteen hundreds, fifteen hundreds, the temperature dropped. We see the temperature going down. Pinot noir couldn't mature properly. So we had to look around at what other genetic resources we had And this is when Gueh appeared. It was a grape from Hungary that had already arrived in Europe in the fifth century after Christ. But in this period of cold, this grape found a resurgence in Viticulture, It rebuilt the European Viticulture that had collapsed with with the inability of pinot noir to mature. Gueh can cope with cold. It was making interesting wine. Germansans called it Oish, this grape was the source of the rebirth of Viticulture during this cold period. By the time that we arrive in the early seventeen hundreds, and the temperature drops even more, you can see it's that very narrow red box in the middle of the graph. All Viticulture in Europe stopped. It was too cold. So as it resurged later around seventeen thirty five, seventeen fifty, There was a rebirth of wine through Morillon and Chardonnay. And Chardonnay began to surge. Many wines of Europe were born during this cold period of time. All the children that were formed by Crossing Guay and Pino noir, were the genetic resources that rebuilt European wine during this cold period of time. So the point of this graph is that, yes, we know Pino noir does well in in warm weather. But we have genetic resources to cope with cold weather. So we are coping with climate change, even back in the medieval times, even back in the sixteen hundreds, seventeen hundreds, we had genetic resources to cope with climate problems. In this case, stream cold. S s t. S h a. Capaceli. Looking at champagne, this is very interesting. Professor says that, actually, the birth heavy glass bottles in England occurred virtually at the same time as the birth of champagne in France. England created heavy glass bottles because they had coal to use for fires. They could make very, very hot fires. And they were able to create from this quartz heavy glass bottles that could contain a sparkling wine. Previously before sixteen sixty two, there weren't vessels that could hold a sparkling wine in. They would explode. So myth of Don Perignon creating the wine in sixteen sixty eight and the heavy glass bottles in sixteen sixty two collided at the same period of time. So professor is talking about a really wonderful painting in seventeen thirty five. It's of a group of people in a restaurant eating oysters, and all of the guests dinner are staring up at the ceiling, staring up at the heavens, and what they're looking at is the cork floating out of the bottle. As the sommelier, the waiter opens the bottle, the cork is shot up, and it's the curiosity caused by this new form of wine, this new sparkling wine born in the early seventeen hundreds. So this painting sort of brings the heavy glass bottle, the sparkling wine, and and the cultural aspect of all of this curious new event together. So we're looking at grapes that were cultivated into roll during this period. And what we see here is from fifteen hundred to sixteen hundred. The grape that was most cultivated was Trump Ener. So it could mature well, no matter what was happening in the region. What we see as the cold phase arrives, the family of Skyave grapes disappears from the scene. It's too cold for them. And there is an elevation of a group of wines called Sauer Vine. They're very acidic wines. They're a blend of varietals, very vigorous. That could cope with the cold temperatures. So we see these wines come to the forefront. There's a resurgence of them. While the Chiave family of wines dies down, they couldn't withstand the cold. So again, we're looking at genetic material that can cope with climate change in our grapes. Tremina being able to withstand everything, and the sour vines being more able to be vigorous and be productive and create good wines even in a period of cold. It seems okay, of the to be honest with you. The the in italia, in a We know that today, we need to look at all the positive aspects of climate change. And be optimistic about the challenges that we're facing. But in the past, Venice already understood these problems and how to get around them and sort of all of these things. They understood about the demand for quality wine from the nobility. And as the cold period arrived, they couldn't mature the grapes and create quality wine that was what they were selling to the nobles across Europe, but they didn't wanna lose their market share. So in a stroke of genius and and marketing genius, as Professor said, Venice took a look at what they had, and they controlled all of the ports in the Adriatic all the way to Greece. And in Greece, they discovered that there were sweet wines and aromatic wines being created. And so they wanted to bring those wines back to Venice so that they wouldn't lose the market share with the nobility they were supplying with quality wines. So there is an actual location, what actually means the port with one entrance in Greece. It's a tiny little peninsula, and it is exactly that. It's a a port that only has one way in and one way out. So, Monamacilla, we say. And Greece took the grapes and the wines from this area. And instead of naming them by variety, they created what was essentially the first brand They called them all Malvasia, you know, back in the day when copy machines were invented, we called them all Xerox, and Xerox became a verb. Malvasia became the same thing. It became a brand name. So we're looking at a picture of six bunches of grapes here. They are all Malvasillas, but none of them are genetically related. So the Greeks took these grapes and these vines and these wines and created essentially one brand name that they could sell to the nobility who wanted quality wines, keep their market share. They also brought back Vinisante. Vinisante is not the same thing as Vini Santi originated in Santorini, which was named after Santa Elena. These wines were a wine from a place, sweet wines with the with the name of the place, Santorini, Vini Santi. This was the first wine that actually had a sense one location. So the Malvasillas were from Monamacia, one location, the Vinisanti from Santorini, one location, but none of them were genetically related. And then as time went on, the story became more complicated as production increased in Venice and as their market share increased selling these wines to the nobility, but the brand name stuff. So Malvasillas are not genetically related, but they are a group of varieties that was a marketing stroke of genius. I mean, So let's say, So leaving the medieval times and arriving into current times, we're going to look at the effects of climate change now. And this graph here is hugely worrying for for obvious reasons. We see in sixteen fifty, sort of the median temperature. And then in seventeen o nine, we dropped to, among the coldest temperatures ever recorded, shooting up directly afterwards in seventeen twenty five to very hot temperatures. And then a long period, two hundred years of vacillating temperatures a bit up a bit down, a bit up a bit down. When we arrive in nineteen eighty, since nineteen eighty, the temperature has gone up and up and up constantly. There hasn't been a period where it has dropped. When we arrive at twenty twenty, we've got the highest recorded temperature, higher even than seventeen twenty five. So we're looking at a period of extended temperature increase. And this is the challenge that we have to confront now. Listen to the Italian wine podcast wherever you get your podcasts. We're on SoundCloud. Apple podcasts, Spotify, email IFM, and more. Don't forget to subscribe and rate the show. If you enjoy listening, please consider donating through Italian wine podcast dot com. 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