Wine and Climate

In Data & Decisions review this week, the professor highlighted a regression that was able to predict wine quality extremely well by looking simply at average growth season temperatures. This more than anything else was statistically significant in proving how good the wine was going to be. Is there really a magical temperature range that's the secret to great wine? And if so, is there any way you could build a mobile vineyard so you could truck it over to where the right climate was in years with bad weather?

To understand climate’s role in growing wine grapes, there are several factors to be considered:

• The weather and climate of the region
• The climate's suitability to different types of grapes
• The climate's seasonable and longer term variability
• The influence of climate change on all the above

Here are some cool charts that I found that dig into this in more detail. As we have learned, cooler temperatures yield more subtle wines, while hotter temperatures yield full bodied, fruity, sweet and higher alcohol wines. I'm guessing the study controlled for different grape varietals, otherwise I would imagine there are some biases in the results as quality cooler climate wines should in theory have gotten high marks as well. Another consideration would be where the ratings themselves are coming from. If the ratings used in the regression are coming from Robert Parker, for example, who prefers big, fruit-forward wines, then it makes sense that intermediate to warm climates would be the clear winners. Maybe there's a case to be made for educating wine drinkers more about what growing climates their taste buds prefer, so they can explore wines from the climate bands they like most, rather thinking about things just in terms of famous varietals and esteemed wine regions.