The Evolution of Wine Tasting and the Challenges of Climate Change

 Reflection on the Evolution of the Art of Wine Tasting and a Final Note on Climate Change in the Wine World.

The advancements in neuroscience and our understanding of how the brain works are truly remarkable. We often stubbornly try to turn many areas of knowledge into "objective empirical science," yet as "subjects," we are inherently "subjective." In a world where it's now possible to even program in "natural language," I believe it's time to rethink the supposedly "professional" wine tasting systems... Tasting wines in that way, if I may use the metaphor, is like analyzing programming code (Python, JavaScript, HTML...) instead of simply enjoying the beautiful website.

The Evolution of Wine Tasting and the Challenges of Climate Change

Abstract:

In this comprehensive exploration, we delve into the evolving concept of wine tasting over the past 30 years, analyzing how scientific advancements, particularly in neurobiology, have redefined our approach to understanding wine. From the traditional French and English analytical tastings to modern intuitive and geosensory approaches, this text examines the interplay of sensory perception, individual subjectivity, and the growing role of the brain in wine appreciation. It also reflects on the profound impact of climate change on vineyards worldwide, exploring how rising temperatures, erratic weather patterns, and environmental shifts are reshaping the future of wine production. Through a blend of scientific insight, sensory analysis, and reflection on the relationship between wine, memory, and personal experience, this article offers a deep dive into the challenges and adaptations required to maintain wine's legacy in an ever-changing world.

6. Redefining the Concept of Wine Tasting

Over the past 30 years, everything has changed significantly, and the concept of wine tasting is no exception. With recent scientific discoveries, especially in the field of neurobiology, we now have many more ways to understand and analyze wine from different perspectives. In just a few decades, we have moved from seeking objectivity to naturally embracing the individual subjectivity of each of us. Let’s briefly examine the evolution of the concept of wine tasting.

6.1. The French Analytical Tasting

To understand the revolution brought about by the creation and acceptance of the French analytical tasting model, it's essential to know the historical context. Until the mid-20th century, there was an active battle against widespread fraud in many areas of the wine world. Thus, the French A.O.C.( DO, AVA…) were gradually established to link wine to a specific place of origin and impose strict regulations as a guarantee of quality. It was a time of renewal, a moment to break with the existing status quo and create new structures on which to build the new world of wine in France. In this context, the French analytical tasting emerged.

The French Analytical Tasting, developed around the same time as the English version in the mid-20th century, emphasized the supremacy of smell over the other senses, which were relegated to the background. Its greatest contribution was codifying the language of wine, creating objective criteria to minimize the subjective factors in tasting, ensuring that all tasters used the same words to define the same perceptions. In 1971, the INAO created and popularized a glass that allowed for the development of aromas, concentrating on the nose. In 1980, Emyle Peynaud, a long-time professor at the Faculty of Oenology at the University of Bordeaux, published Le Gout du vin (The Taste of Wine), where he synthesized all the rigor and objectivity of French analytical tasting.

6.2. The English Analytical Tasting

The English Analytical Tasting originated in London in 1953, when a company of wine merchants, the Vintners Company, created the title of Master of Wine, which remains to this day the most prestigious individual title in the world of wine. It's an ultra-selective club of about 400 M.W. (Masters of Wine), and every year, after 5–7 years of marathon studies, only 5–7 candidates pass out of the 50–100 applicants. In theory (although we are convinced it is not the case in practice), they are the best active tasters and those with the most general knowledge of the world of wine.

The English analytical tasting, unlike the French, focuses on analyzing only the essential aspects of the wine (structure, acidity, tannins, texture...), considering it a waste of time to look for more than three distinct aromas and flavors. They also venture, though cautiously, into other topics (production methods, the wine's positioning, price…) that are very important today. Their motto "taste like a detective, argue like a lawyer" is still highly relevant. Under the prestigious title of Master of Wine, the English school developed an educational body, the Wine Spirit Education Trust (WSET), which, through four progressive levels, systematizes and simplifies all the essential concepts of English analytical tasting, maintaining a very high and widely recognized standard.

6.3. Intuitive Tasting

Intuitive Tasting, primarily developed by Franck Thomas, and Geosensory tasting, developed by Jean Michel Deiss in the first decade of the 21st century, are quite different from the French and English analytical tastings. These methods incorporate many advances in neuroscience and philosophy as applied to wine tasting. In intuitive tasting, it is mandatory to taste with eyes closed and in a black glass, as hiding the eyes enhances gustatory and olfactory senses and especially intuition. Recent neuroscience studies confirm this: while sight activates 15% of the cerebral cortex, smell and taste activate only 1%, so the brain overvalues visual information, partially inhibiting the other senses. Simply closing the eyes increases brain activity in the olfactory and gustatory systems and can even change a person’s taste perception.

Franck Thomas believes that everyone can taste wine, and their level of skill depends on multiple factors. We should always approach tasting in a relaxed manner, without tension, to naturally express our emotions. This is what he did after being named Best Sommelier of Europe, using the purest and most rigorous analytical method, dissecting thousands of wines to win competitions. But eventually, he realized it didn’t make him happy, and all he needed was to convey his emotions. Thus, in 2012, he created the intuitive tasting method.

6.4. Geosensory Tasting

Geosensory Tasting shares many similarities with intuitive tasting (e.g., it is also performed blind, but with two wines compared at a time to better understand their unique qualities and differences). It emphasizes terroir over industrial wines. The soil defines the wine's character. Unlike analytical tasting, which uses highly technical and precise language, geosensory tasting employs informal, easily understood terms (such as watery, rough, salivating, spherical…) that leave no room for doubt.

In geosensory tasting, gustatory sensations, rather than olfactory ones as in analytical tastings, are considered more significant. Given recent neurological advancements, gustatory sensations are more critical and complex in tasting, particularly tactile sensations (consistency, graininess…) and salivation when in contact with wine. In geosensory tasting, as prominent winemakers like Henri Jayer or Gerard Chave have often said, wine is not for tasting, nor even for smelling, but for drinking, ideally with food. Unlike analytical tasting, where the various components of the wine are objectively assessed, seeking out flaws, the approach in geosensory and intuitive tasting is more holistic, with less emphasis on details (such as whether the wine is slightly more or less acidic, or if the color is more or less intense…). The focus is on capturing the essence of the wine at its origin—the terroir, which determines the wine’s unique character. Very recently, the University of Strasbourg established a university diploma called “Toward Wine Terroir via Geosensory Tasting.”

6.5. Global Tasting

At the beginning of the 2000s, Professor Denis Dubourdieu, founder of the Institute of Vine and Wine Sciences (ISVV) at the University of Bordeaux, introduced the concept of global tasting. After decades of defending and practicing analytical tasting, Dubourdieu changed his view, influenced by the results of a doctoral thesis he supervised by enologist Frederic Brochet titled La dégustation: étude des représentations des objets chimiques dans le champ de la conscience (Tasting: A Study of the Representations of Chemical Objects in the Field of Consciousness). For the first time, based on several scientific experiments, we became aware that the brain can override all sensory perceptions, relying, for instance, on something previously considered secondary—such as the wine’s color—thus invalidating analytical methods that were based on objectivity. For Axel Marchal, Dubourdieu’s spiritual successor, global tasting is the most suitable and effective, as it combines the method and vocabulary of analytical tasting, the value of terroir from geosensory tasting, and the sensory and philosophical dimension of intuitive tasting. Each tasting method has its pros and cons, so it’s beneficial to practice different types of tasting to view wine from multiple perspectives.

Each taster has their own tasting method adapted to their character. While Jacques Puisais closes his eyes as the wine enters his mouth, Daniel Coulon waits 10 seconds after taking a sip to close his eyes and feel the wine from his heart. Stephane Derenocaurt prefers geosensory tasting with slight touches of the analytical. Audrey Delbarre, an independent consultant trained at the RVF Academy, uses all three methods, beginning with geosensory, followed by intuitive, and finishing with analytical, as she believes this is the best way to find “the path to emotions.” Broadly speaking, this is the tasting method I have used in my day-to-day life for over 25 years, adapting it to my character and experience.

That is crucial—each person must create their own tasting method. It would have been pointless for me to follow Audrey Delbarre’s steps, even though we arrived at the same methods and conclusions. She is a young, brilliant professional who experimented with her cat to analyze how it reacts to different wine aromas, and in 2020 she published Lancelot, le chat qui voulait devenir un nez (Lancelot, the Cat Who Wanted to Have a Nose). However, I am convinced that with my tasting method, I enjoy and appreciate wine as much as anyone in the world.

7. The Long Journey of Aromas and Flavors

The long journey of aromas and flavors, from their origins deep in the soil to when we form a personal evaluation in our brains, is complex and depends on multiple factors. It’s a fascinating, mysterious, magical process that remains largely unknown, though thanks to scientific advances over the last 25/30 years, we are beginning to understand some aspects that were previously misunderstood.

7.1. The Soil

If we taste grapes from different varieties, we’ll notice that the gustatory differences between them are minimal. However, when we taste the wines from these same varieties, the differences are striking and obvious. Therefore, we might assume that the aromas of different wines arise during fermentation and aging (secondary and tertiary aromas) and that varietal aromas (primary) are minor and contribute only marginally to a wine’s complexity. But it’s the opposite.

Axel Marchal, a professor at the University of Bordeaux and an aroma specialist, tells us that "if we find grapefruit aromas in Sauvignon Blanc, it’s because this variety contains the same aromatic molecules as grapefruit." The terroir (the grape, the soil, the environment, the climate, the winemaker…) determines the identity of the complex aromas and the wine's final character. We must ignore simplistic arguments, even from some professionals, who claim that a wine cannot smell like raspberries or truffles if there are no raspberries or truffles in the soil. It’s more complicated than that— “the aromas of a wine are the manifestation of the compounds synthesized by the vine, which vary according to the environment.” Mycorrhizae, kilometer-long filaments resembling microscopic mushrooms that surround the roots, capture nutrients, trace elements, and minerals and synthesize them so they can be absorbed by the vine’s roots. This mycorrhizal system is fragile, and the unmoderated use of phytosanitary products has destroyed it in some cases, which is why the aromatic complexity of living soils is entirely different from that of chemically treated soils. Most aromas are not detectable in the grape cluster, but they exist as precursors that are revealed later during fermentation or aging, like hazelnut in Chardonnay or raspberry in Pinot Noir. It’s like photography—the quality is already there the moment you press the shutter, but you only appreciate it when the photo is developed. The character and identity come from the soil, and fermentation or aging, if done well, are simply vehicles to reveal the aromas, allowing them to fully emerge as we perceive them.

7.2. Sight

Once the aromas manifest in the wine, they still need to be captured and evaluated by the winemaker, the enologist, the sommelier, or the enthusiast. Wine is a multisensory object that we analyze through all five of our senses. For decades, we thought sight was a secondary sense when it came to forming a judgment about a wine, but over the past 20 years, we have realized it has extreme importance. Gabriel Lepousez, a neurobiologist specializing in sensory perception and brain plasticity at the Pasteur Institute, confirms that the color of wine significantly influences our brains, which are very impressionable. The brain often forms a judgment based solely on color, then searches for the right words to confirm its belief, which may be accurate or completely wrong. The solution to this is blind tasting.

These claims were scientifically confirmed through two illustrative experiments conducted at the University of Bordeaux by Denis Dubourdieu and Frederic Brochet in 2001 and 2003. In the first, they presented two wines, one white and one red, which were actually the same wine, with one tinted with a natural colorant that didn’t alter its smell or taste. When describing the wines, enology students, influenced solely by color, described them as two entirely different wines. For the white, they mentioned white flowers, acidity, freshness… while for the red, they spoke of red and black fruits, tannins, structure… In 2003, they presented a wine from a Tetra Brik made by a Bordeaux cooperative, which second-year students rated 5/20. Fifteen days later, they presented the same wine bottled as a Bordeaux Cru Classé, and 6 out of 57 students identified it as the same wine. The average score in this case was 15/20. This demonstrated that appearance and packaging also strongly influence the brain, which prejudges even before tasting.

7.3. Smell

Smell has historically been the most important sense in tasting any wine, though in the last 15/20 years, taste and the brain itself have become equally or even more decisive. Let’s look at how aromas travel through our sense of smell, and, importantly, how we can train our sense of smell to become better and more efficient.

Wine can convey hundreds of aromas, from red fruits to rose petals, from lychee to spices, leather… But, as Axel Marchal explains, "these are actually very light molecules that aren’t fully present in the wine, but as they are more or less volatile and more or less aromatic, when they come into contact with the air, they rise into the space between the surface of the wine and the edge of the glass.” We place our nose into the glass, and “the molecules stimulate our nasal receptors, which quickly send the information to the olfactory bulb, located in our brain.”

Wine doesn’t consist of just one aroma—on the contrary, its complexity results from the association of multiple scents. The brain is responsible for selecting and distinguishing each of them. Olfactory perception is a complex phenomenon involving many parts of the brain. A single molecule can interact with several receptors, or several molecules can interact with one receptor. Each molecule has its own characteristics, but when two molecules appear together, the resulting aroma is not simply the sum of the two—it’s an entirely new aroma. Much like in the world of perfumes (where there are 300–400 perfumes), but in the world of wine, there are millions. It’s exciting to think that this complex process happens naturally every time we drink a bottle of wine.

And the brain often makes mistakes. Just as with sight, with smell, the brain prejudges and anticipates what it will perceive. It draws conclusions, which can be wrong, based on its experience. For example, we smell a Muscat wine and immediately assume it’s sweet, even if it’s completely dry, simply because our brain associates that aroma with sweet wines, as historically, most Muscats we’ve tasted have been sweet.

Moreover, the aromas of any wine are not fixed at all. In contact with air and external temperature, they change minute by minute, to the point where the wine can transform so much that it seems like several different wines. The amount of wine in the glass also plays a role. If there is very little liquid in the glass, oxidation is more intense, accentuating faults such as vegetal notes and oak. However, one of the elements that most significantly alters the expression of a wine is the glass itself. Depending on its shape, size, length, and thickness, the wine will transmit different aromas, to the point where the same wine in three different glasses can seem like three different wines. In 1973, the Riedel brand introduced the Sommelier series, marking the first time that each variety had its own glass. Since then, there have been extraordinary glasses from many brands (Zalto, Spiegelau, Sydonios, Schott Zwiesel…), so much so that now, with so much choice, the challenge is knowing which glass is best for each wine.

Smell is a sense that can be trained, and with a thoughtful and pre-established plan, the results are usually quite good and relatively quick. Here are some simple exercises to help.

The first is learning to listen to what the wine is telling you. Always in a calm, unhurried state, tasting blind, start by comparing two wines (one terroir-driven and one industrial), then three (a white, a rosé, and a red) ... and dare to write down your sensations and emotions, even if they are disjointed words. Try not to pass any judgment or try to guess the wine. Little by little, you’ll start distinguishing between simple wines and complex wines—the former will leave you indifferent and quickly be forgotten, while the latter will move you and remain in your memory.

The second is to improve your sensitivity to aromas. In L’Ecole de la dégustation published in 2013, Pierre Casamayor suggests that as a first exercise, we can close our eyes and think of the aroma of a rose, and gradually, we can even “dream of aromas.” When we repeatedly smell the same aroma, we eventually come to know it and differentiate it from others. The best way to start is with aromatic families, like flowers, fruits..., and you can deepen your knowledge by visiting a local market, a botanical garden..., and of course, using Le Nez du Vin aroma kit.

The third is identifying aromas by association. Smell is a fundamentally associative sense, as we usually associate any scent with an emotion, memory, image, or sensation. The more extensive our olfactory library (which, logically, is stored in our memory), the easier it will be to make these mental associations. A great sommelier is an expert at distinguishing and organizing aromas thanks to their vast memory of associations, which they use to then make a precise judgment about a wine’s aromatic profile.

7.4. Taste

While smell gives us some information about the wine’s quality, the real flood of sensations occurs when the wine enters our mouth. The wine warms up in our oral cavity, coats our tongue, is aerated by the slight amount of air entering through our lips, and mixes with our saliva, triggering new olfactory sensations in the retronasal area. Three senses (smell, taste, and touch) work together, multiplying the sensations, and all this information is immediately processed by the brain.

This information is complex. You might think that the olfactory sensations detected by the nose should match those from tasting the wine via the retronasal passage, since it’s the same wine in your mouth. But that’s not the case. Gabriel Lepousez, a researcher at the Pasteur Institute, explains that “the nature of the aromas captured by the nose and retronasally are not the same, and the taster may feel like they are tasting two different wines. But we don’t have two separate olfactory systems—it’s simply that the wine changes as it passes through the mouth.” In contact with the tongue and the oral walls, we activate the sense of touch. The tongue is a highly sensitive organ, possessing 20% of our body’s tactile sense. The taste buds on the tongue detect the wine’s flavors (sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and umami) and its texture (the tannins, astringency…).

For more than 20 years, it has been scientifically proven that the classic map of the tongue (with sweetness perceived at the front, sourness on the sides, and bitterness at the back) is completely false. Axel Marchal reminds us that “there are no general rules: each person’s tongue map is unique. Sensitive areas exist, but not exclusively for each person.” All tastes are detected across the entire tongue. The three types of papillae (fungiform, foliate, and circumvallate, from the tip of the tongue toward the palate) perceive the five tastes with relatively little variation in intensity. Therefore, we can confirm that the classic map of the tongue doesn’t exist. It became popular in the 1940s when American Edwin Boring translated or misinterpreted the studies of German scientist David Maring, who, in the early 20th century, mentioned that taste buds were not completely homogeneous and thus had slight variations in sensitivity. Fortunately, in 2000, the functioning of taste receptors across the entire tongue was discovered. Can you imagine what happened when, in the first half of the 20th century, they discovered the fifth taste, umami, and the tongue was already filled with the other tastes? Since there was no available space, they placed it right in the center of the tongue, in the only gap. Fortunately, thanks to science, all of this has been clarified for the past 25 years, though many still insist on a completely false map of the tongue, ignoring what scientists have long disproved.

In the mouth, flavors don’t reach the same intensity or last the same amount of time. The maximum perception of sweetness occurs at 5 seconds and almost disappears after 10 seconds. Acidity is perceived more intensely, reaching its peak at 8–10 seconds and lasting more than 40 seconds. Bitterness, with a similar intensity to acidity, is the slowest to develop, becoming noticeable at 20–25 seconds and the last to disappear, lingering for 60–80 seconds. It’s good practice to analyze the coexistence and evolution of the three main tastes: sweetness, acidity, and bitterness, as they differ in intensity and persistence. If you pay close attention, you can enjoy how the wine evolves through its three phases (the attack or initial impression, the mid-palate, and the finish) and finally measure its persistence, calculating in seconds (or in wine terms, caudalie) how long the aromas and flavors remain in your mouth (or rather in your mind) after swallowing or spitting out the wine.

Jerome Baudouin reminds us that “touching with your tongue is like touching with your fingers.” This often underrated fourth sense is crucial to understanding a wine’s structure. As with other foods, wine also conveys a great deal of tactile information to the taste buds. To see the significant differences between wines, think about how you feel, in terms of texture, when drinking a powerful Madiran, a Cotes du Rhone, and a light Beaujolais. It’s like running a burlap cloth, a cotton cloth, and velvet through your mouth. But how and why do we experience these sensations?

Saliva plays a vital role, much more important than you might initially think. It’s easy to understand that the wine you drink is always a mix of wine and saliva, and this blend is what our brain ultimately evaluates. Saliva is a visco-elastic gel made up mainly of water, but also minerals and numerous proteins that create a lubricating and protective film, providing a smooth and fluid texture to the surface of the mouth. When in contact with saliva, the tannins in the wine progressively break down the protective salivary film, causing the proteins in the saliva to precipitate and clump together. The extent of this depends on the nature and concentration of the tannins. As a result, the initial contact between wine and the mouth’s mucous membrane is smooth and fluid, but as the wine (really the mix of wine and saliva) progresses toward the palate, the surface becomes rougher, sometimes to the point where we describe the texture as astringent. Ultimately, thanks to the sense of touch, the tongue, and saliva, we can assess the tannic structure and granularity of the wine.

If smell was the principal sense underpinning both French and English analytical tastings, in intuitive and geosensory tastings, the crucial element is the interaction between taste, smell, and touch that we experience when we hold wine in our mouths. Describing olfactory sensations detected by the nose is relatively easy with good training, but the gustatory-tactile-olfactory perceptions in the mouth are far more complex and difficult to convey. While I am convinced that global and individually adapted tasting is the best way to advance in this complex field, I have yet to meet a single taster who has moved from intuitive and geosensory tasting to analytical tasting, whereas thousands start with the analytical concept and gradually shift to intuitive and geosensory tasting. It’s simply the brain’s natural progression, from unrealistic and supposed objectivity to natural and complex subjectivity.

7.5. The Brain

The brain is the most intimate, secretive, and mysterious organ of the human body. Each brain is a mystery—unique and different in every person. While we have made significant advances in understanding how the brain functions over the past 50 years, we still know very little about its complexity. During tasting, the various senses automatically send all their perceptions to the brain. There isn’t a specific part of the brain that processes these perceptions; rather, they are transmitted through complex neural networks that simultaneously connect to our memory, constructing a personal judgment about the wine based on our experience. At every moment, without pause, new sensations are sent to the brain from the senses, interacting with memory and experience, and with the impression the brain had formed of the wine just seconds before. This continues until we finish the glass of wine.

From this perspective, as some strict neurobiologists argue, the evaluation of any wine is entirely subjective and depends solely on our brain. Fortunately, other less strict neurobiologists consider that while the brain is critical in tasting, there is an objective component based on the senses, which depends on the experience and character of each taster. Earlier, we discussed how the brain can be easily manipulated by the wine’s color or by associating an aroma with an incorrect taste. In all these cases, a professional taster will quickly realize the brain’s error.

Barry C. Smith, author of the book Questions of Taste: The Philosophy of Wine, published in 2007 and current director of the Center for the Study of the Senses (CenSes) at the University of London, explains that according to neuroscientists, humans don’t just have five senses as traditionally thought, but between 22 and 33. Additionally, the senses are not independent, as was believed since Aristotle’s time, but are interconnected, and these interconnections determine how the brain functions and the conclusions it draws.

In laboratory experiments comparing the brains of sommeliers and amateurs, the sensory perceptions of a sommelier while tasting wine are sent directly to a very specific part of the brain, where they quickly analyze the wine and form a judgment. In amateurs, sensory perceptions are processed more slowly and diffusely, engaging different areas of the brain, primarily emotional ones, constructing a more global image of the wine. The amateur knows whether they like a wine more or less, but they won’t be able to assess the wine’s quality, longevity, or compare it to other wines from the same vintage or different vintages of that wine—judgments typically made by a sommelier who has enough experience to reach those conclusions.

But anyone can progress from being an amateur to becoming a professional sommelier by traveling, reading, listening, tasting, and thinking. Nothing is predetermined or unchangeable—everything can change. It’s essential to choose the right teachers and companions who will guide you on your journey, where you will experience wine from a much broader perspective, intertwining philosophy, history, culture, economics, religion, chemistry, aesthetics, ethics… and a thousand other things. Wine is a multisensory object of perception where multiple disciplines and perspectives converge, and tasting is simply something magical and fascinating. It’s also true that not everyone has the same capacity for learning and expression, the same memory, or the same persistence. But it’s important to know that we can all progress and experience wine in a more consistent, intense, and hedonistic way.

But how does this learning translate into everyday life? There are many ways (dissecting, comparing, sharing, evaluating…) to advance in wine tasting, and in all of them, it’s helpful to have a good teacher.

Dissecting means analyzing the defects and virtues of all the essential aspects of a wine. It means more than just saying whether you like it or not—seeing beyond the hedonistic side. Think of an orchestra—a beginner hears only a single sound, while an expert can hear and evaluate each musician separately and together. Comparative tasting of two well-chosen wines is useful and effective in quickly appreciating the differences between them, whether in terms of aromas, flavors, textures… We learn and progress much more by experiencing it than by reading about it or having it explained to us. Sharing the tasting with a good companion helps us advance more quickly—sometimes one plus one doesn’t equal two but three. One brain expresses what it feels, and the other responds based on what it feels and what its companion said. This process continues, feeding back on itself and deepening to levels we thought impossible. Evaluating means daring to express what we feel and think, little by little but steadily, calmly, without fear. After doing it a hundred times, it will come naturally, without any effort.

Although every day we learn more about the brain, it remains the great unknown. It’s here, inside each of our heads, and it’s irreplaceable. It and our senses determine our relationship with wine in all its aspects. For some of us, wine is the passion and joy of our lives. Reflecting on all of this, even if it’s not easy to reach conclusions, can only serve to enhance our knowledge, and, without even realizing it, make us a little happier day by day.

8. Climate Change

Climate change exists—it’s scientifically undeniable. In the past 30 years, the effects of these climatic disruptions on vineyards and wine have been dramatic, changing the status quo in unimaginable ways. We only need to compare wines from 4–5 decades ago with those of today, and the differences leave no room for doubt. These aren’t just words—they’re realities. From the 1980s and 1990s to today, the harvest has advanced by 2 to 6 weeks, and alcohol levels have increased by 2 to 3°C. Vineyards are now being planted in Sweden and Tibet at 3,500 meters in elevation, frosts have destroyed five out of the last ten vintages in the Loire, and heatwaves in Languedoc have exceeded 50°C. Regardless of denialist or alarmist discourses, the real question is whether the vineyard can adapt to such radical changes in such a short time. Faced with these challenges, wineries must evolve quickly, and the only way to stay in business is to introduce as many changes as necessary.

Climatologists are categorical about the rising temperatures, predicting an increase of 2°C by 2050 and 4°C by 2100. But there are other associated climate risks: frost, hail, torrential rains, heatwaves, wildfires… It’s been shown that as temperatures rise, the risk of frost increases by 40% for every 2°C increase. With such mild winters, the vine’s vegetative cycle starts 4–5 weeks earlier, and frosts become more destructive. There’s a significant economic difference between having a frost once every 10–15 years versus one every two years. In the face of climate change, wineries must adapt to the new conditions: uproot parcels that are most vulnerable to frost and drought, protect vineyards with anti-hail nets or anti-frost wind machines, plant new varieties, introduce irrigation, insure production, and adjust prices to account for crop losses.

Rainfall is a more complex issue because, regardless of the amount of rain, climate change has intensified excess rainfall in the North (this year, Rias Baixas will exceed 3,000 liters) and extreme drought periods in the South. On top of that, it no longer rains when the vines need it. If a vineyard needs at least 450 liters of water per year to produce quality grapes and be economically viable, many Mediterranean regions barely reach 200 liters, and the outlook is worsening. If wineries cannot add value to their wine by raising prices (and it seems impossible to increase yield), the only solution is to uproot the vines and grow something else, like cactus or tourists. Experts suggest that, as the best wineries are already doing, viticulture and varieties should be changed first, and if necessary, irrigation introduced, with the changes that entails for the wine’s character and quality, provided it’s even possible to do so (impossible in several Southern regions where vines are dying, and water restrictions are beginning to be implemented, even for drinking).

Climate change is redrawing the world’s wine map, in Europe and elsewhere. Vineyards are moving North. Vineyards in Brittany, Normandy, Belgium, and England are becoming common, and these are no longer experimental projects but large-scale investments in thousands of hectares. Some climate predictions even suggest that Brittany will have a Mediterranean climate by 2100. In historic vineyards, equally threatened by climate risks, planting is beginning on plateaus and north-facing slopes, where 20–30 years ago, grapes couldn’t ripen, and thus remained unplanted. It’s hard to imagine what will become of today’s emblematic vineyards, with traditions spanning hundreds or thousands of years, in 40–50 years.

Changing grape varieties is a sensitive issue. It’s possible to switch to vines chosen for their precocity, drought resistance, and sugar production. There are more than 6,000 options worldwide, but culturally it’s very complicated. Can you imagine a Romanée-Conti without Pinot Noir, a Montrachet without Chardonnay, an Hermitage without Syrah, El Pisón without Tempranillo, or Casa Castillo Pie Franco without Monastrell? While some D.O./A.O.C. already allow a percentage of experimental varieties (which we’ll see how they perform in a few years), high-end wineries stick exclusively to the original variety, adjusting pruning methods, harvest dates, and winemaking processes.

It’s inevitable to wonder how the taste of wines will change in the future. If terroirs are altered due to climate change, so will the wines. Rising temperatures lead to earlier and disrupted ripening, with a greater imbalance between acidity, sugar, and tannins, generally resulting in less acidic wines with higher alcohol content (in Bordeaux, alcohol levels have risen by 2–3°C in 25 years, and obviously, a wine with 12.5% ABV is different from one with 15.00°C). On the other hand, the global trend is moving in the opposite direction—toward drinking lighter, fresher wines. Wineries face a significant challenge in adapting viticulture and winemaking practices. This will be the great challenge of the coming decades, as they’ll have to work hard to balance two opposing trends. On the one hand, wines are becoming more alcoholic and less acidic due to climate change. On the other, consumers are naturally gravitating toward lighter, more fluid wines, reflecting today’s lifestyle. We’re at a crossroads—let’s hope everything turns out well.