Ep. 2016 VIA 2024 - Climate Change pt 3 of 3 | Everybody Needs A Bit Of Scienza

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This is the concept of abandoning the Bordeaux style, growing, and pruning, and management that we've been using since the nineteen sixties, and looking towards returning towards a more Mediterranean style of Viticulture that will port, the heat, and the drought. The the the support. Problem. We're looking back towards ancient styles of what was called a promiscuous Viticulture where all the plants grew together, so the vines grew up a living tree or or another plant that supported the vine. We see on the left hand side vines growing up an olive tree we need to reconsider the fact that we moved away from that because the support tree is providing shade. We walked away from that because we wanted to expose our vines to more sunlight. And now it's time to reconsider that perhaps we need to return to some sort of Viticulture that is more similar to the ancient ways than the ways we've developed in more recent years. We see in these past two slides, but over time, we've moved from this more promiscuous style of growing everything not just vines altogether to current times where we have concentrated on homogeneous style of growing one thing altogether in one place And we're going to have to change this. It's not supportable during climate change during temperature increase and water decrease. So we're going to be looking at what we were doing in the past versus what we've been doing now and how to make the decision for the future. We're looking at two side by side images of from Trentino. Professor is saying, what we're probably going to have to do is really take a look at how we train our vines, manage our vineyards because it's too difficult to change all the varieties. It's too difficult to move all of the vineyards. During the medieval times, when it was cold, they grew the plants altogether. You can see on the left hand side, everyone has on codes and hats. It's cold. All the plants are growing together and working together well in a cold phase. On the right hand side where it's hot, everybody's sort of stripped off. There are no vines growing close to the ground. They're growing up higher. They didn't move their vineyards. They didn't change their varieties. They changed the training systems and how they manage the vineyards, and that's what we're going to have to do as well. We can do certain things such as moving away from an Bailier style of training, moving back towards a pergola here in Veneto in Balpolicella. We have pergola veronese, which was more or less abandoned in recent years, but we have found that in this study on the graph, you can see bunches of grapes that grow in the shade caused by the canopy of a pergola can be up to fifteen degrees cooler than bunches of grapes that are growing in an a spallard or a Guio style, this will regulate the maturing process of the grape. It will allow the grape to accumulate sugar slowly if we grow our grapes in shade, keep them cooler, and extend the ripening period. If they're a spallard or or a Guio style, it's too much sun, too much heat, and they ripen too fast. So we'll have to change our canopy management and our training systems. Again, looking at how we manage our vineyards and our training systems to adapt to climate change, one of the biggest problems isn't the temperature of the air, but the infrared temperature of the ground. Professori is describing that we need to lift the grapes up off the ground so that they're not picking up that infrared temperature, and we need to widen the distance between the rows so that the temperature in between the rows will go down. If we look at Atlantic style, Vordeaux style vineyard management where the rows are quite close together, the temperature in between the rows is super high. So we're gonna need more space. We need to lift our grapes up off the ground separate the rows farther apart. And in the next slide, we'll see a training system that's going to be very useful for adapting to climate change and managing the vineyard this way. Help you complete. To Shenaine. The slide previous, we were looking at the concept of working with root stock and clones, but that takes a lot of time to do. We need a lot of time So a solution that will be faster is similar to the small medieval glaciation where people chose the varietals that were adapted and suitable to cold we now need to choose the varietals that are suitable and adaptable to extreme heat. Okay, the same portion of the sales in criminal entrepreneurship. Compania can be used as a model region for adapting to climate change. It was in the past extremely diverse. We had if you remember from yesterday in the mania Gretcha, this is where the etruscans and the Greeks collided in Campania. So we had all kinds of training methods, all kinds of grape varietals. We had Pergala. We had Tanekea. All of these different things that were chosen by the growers to adapt to each location. And what happened over time from ancient times to now is that almost all of Italy moved away from these various types of training methods that were suitable for each specific location to almost a hundred percent, a Spailier, almost a hundred percent Guio. It's So we're looking at five types of Grecho grapes, still grown in Campania. Some of them are very rare. Remember, yesterday, we discussed the word Grecho in the name of a grape doesn't mean they came from Greece. It means that the wines made from these grapes were made in an in a Greek style. So, Campania has kept this biodiversity, which we haven't kept in other places. These are adaptable to different climates in their different zones within Lasporinio, the the the case, sir. So we're looking at, again, training methods, Greco de tufo, which is the same as Espigno, genetically. Rumbotino was an etruscan word for a specific training method where they would take instead of using steel wires, which had didn't exist back then. The etruscans would take the shoots, twist them together so that the plants were supporting each other without having any interference from from any other support. This way the grapes were protected. The leaves fell over them. And then in Caserta, we see the the grapes growing up the living tree. So, again, the grapes are protected by a leaf canopy that's natural in Rumpatino. Caused by the the vines growing together with the twisted shoots and in Caserta growing up the tree. 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. So the same in in Veneto and and also in the media where we have types of training that is sort of expansive. There's enough space for the canopy to protect the grapes to cause shade to protect it from the radiation in the sunlight. So, Lambrusco's also are very tolerant to climate change. This is a family of grapes, not all exactly genetically connected, but the name Lambrusco covers these grapes that are very adaptable to climate change. The system of training them also creates a protection for the grapes. You know, when we look towards Sicily and other places that are too hot in the south to support a pergola, This is where Albarillo comes to the forefront. It's a wonderful system because it can hold water, and it also requires space. So the way that the plants grow in Albarillo style training forces the producer to keep the plants far enough apart to support this growth so that leaves a lot of space and a lot of cooler air between the vines. So we're looking at a slide of ancient varietals from Aetna We aren't currently growing them, but you can see that many of them have big grapes. There's a lot of space between the grapes. They're tolerant of the infrared heat coming up off of the ground. They're all related to San Giovanni, so they have very high acid, which is important in hot weather. We want to keep the acid elevated. And so it's time that we look back to selecting these types of varietals that have fallen out of favor in the past. Because they are tolerant to the conditions of the future. So it's not only in the south where we're seeing a return to ancient varietals, but also in the north this slide of grapes are from Trentino, and we see similar characteristics, bigger individual grapes, more space between the grapes and between the bunches, more tolerant to the radiation and the problems that we have with the increased temperature sure in climate change? In We're very lucky here in Italy. We have a huge richness of biodiversity. We have over five hundred and twenty five registered native grapes. These that you see here on this slide are the best adapted to climate change. They have a huge tolerance for the challenges of climate change. They're capable of adapting to the challenges. And they maintain their individual characteristics despite the problems that we're confronting with increased temperature and decreased water. Okay. Characteristic. What we're looking at here is a list of grapes in Italy that are very likely candidates to be replanted and to see a resurgence of popularity because they are very adaptable to climate change. They're tolerant to the challenges that we're facing. And so we have this material already at hand. We don't need to create new genetic material. We need to make intelligent selections of grapes that are already adapting and already tolerant to the conditions we're facing. Questions. Okay. So in Bordeaux, they're already working on this. They don't have the biodiverse wealth that we have in Italy. So they're working on crosses of genetic material from grapes that will be resistant to the problem. So starting to diminish plantings of Merlo and Cabernet sauvignon, moving into crosses such as Marceline, which is a cross between Cabernet sauvignon and Grenash, Arrinoa and Leroyla. These are the grapes that they are creating that will be able to be tolerant to the new conditions. So we have a wealth of material already at hand. France is already working on creating material that will work for them. So in some cases, it's very difficult to find varietals that would be useful, particularly in sparkling wine, which in Italy is very, very successful. We make sparkling wine all the way from the Alps. All the way down south to the island of Pantaleria. We don't want to lose that. We're using Charmat, we're using Methadoclassico, and we don't want to lose this production. So rather than change the grape varietal from Sharjanae in Piena noir, which be very hard to do. Instead, in places like Valdi Chambra, which is what you see in this slide, we're moving the vineyards up and up and up. So in the eighteen hundreds, you can see towards the right of the slide, they were down lower, but climate change has made us move them up higher in the two thousands. We're at six, seven hundred meters above sea level in order to keep the same varieties, but adapt to the problems that we're confronting with climate change. That was just a a quick look at a slide. Also in Trentino, where we're looking at Trento Doc, Feraris vineyards that are already moved up to six hundred and forty meters above sea level base of Chardonnay. The the the the cario, motor k. The the area. So, again, talking about the idea of losing Viticulture from current locations to locations that will be more suited to climate change. We're very lucky in Italy. We're fortunate enough to have quite a lot of natural park reserves Not many of them are very convenient. They're very far from services that we need for transport, hospital schools, things like that. But in terms of creating vineyards that will be sustainable and adaptable and tolerant to our climate change challenges, we need to look at these sorts of places. Here, we're looking at the Maiella Nature Reserve, which has a perfect temperature and climate. When you look at the winkler scale, it's in the cooler end of things, and also the perfect soils. So we've got a combination of calcareas, argeal, fleece soils here that are going to be suitable for the challenges of climate change as well. So we're going to have to start looking at our natural parks other places where we've never planted vineyards before, but are going to be tolerant to climate change challenges. So AI is also going to become very, very important as we confront the challenges of climate change We need to be visionary. We need to look at tech that's never existed before, and we need to create short term and long term strategies for using these elements to our advantage in our vineyards and as we confront climate change. Interventy. No. You cal Davis conducted a question Shanaire, a research among producers and buyers and wholesalers, retailers, of wine, to ask them what they thought would be the most important actions needed to be taken to mitigate the problems of climate change. And you can see here on the graph that ultimately what became clear is everyone is in agreement that the most important strategy to mitigate the problems of climate change in the wine business is communication. So communication to the consumers of wine. Right now, there's a perception among consumers of wine that climate change has changed the quality of wine for the worse, and that's not true. So wines of today often have a lot of characteristics that they never had before that are very, very positive. And it's our job to communicate this fact to the consumers so that they understand that climate change is not decreasing the quality of the wine. We have to be positive instruments in this market. We have to be the instruments of communication we have to be the method of helping our producers to continue to make better wines, sell better wines, and for our consumers to understand that climate change is not decreasing the quality of wine. That's it. 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. Any amount helps cover equipment, production, and publication costs. Until next time.