 Steve Robertson remembers a time when growing wine in southwestern Idaho was a risky business, when long, hard frosts would completely destroy a large percentage of plants in local vineyards.
More recently, temperatures have warmed enough so that those devastating frosts seem to be a thing of the past. “We have not had a hard winter in 17 years,” says Robertson, who remembers times in 1989 and 1991 when temperatures dipped to minus 25 degrees and colder. “Global warming has been a great thing for Idaho wines.”
He’s not kidding. Once regarded as inferior to those produced in California’s Napa Valley and Oregon’s Willamette Valley, Idaho wines are gaining respect. In March, Idaho’s Snake River Valley, where Robertson grows grapes for his Hells Canyon Wines, was designated an American Viticultural Area by the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.
Trends in Idaho reflect climate changes occurring throughout the Pacific Northwest. What’s happening in Idaho is just the tip of the iceberg, according to Dr. Gregory Jones, a professor and research climatologist at Southern Oregon University who specializes in the study of how climate variability and change impact natural ecosystems and agriculture. “A warmer growing season has made it much more viable,” Jones says of producing wines in Idaho. “As climates change, to maintain the same growing conditions you have to move north in latitude, up in elevation, or toward the ocean.”
Evidence of changing climates can be documented in both the American West and in Europe, Jones says. Research shows the summer of 2003 in Europe was hotter than any since 1370. In the grape-growing regions of California, Oregon, and Washington, research indicates growing seasons have warmed by 0.9 degree C during the period from 1948 to 2002. Jones says growing conditions in the Napa Valley mirror years-ago grape growing conditions in the Fresno and Lodi regions of central California, which are now more suitable for producing large volumes of low-quality wines or grapes for raisins.
In the 1970s, Oregon’s Willamette Valley was a marginal area for producing quality Pinot Noir grapes, Jones says. Since the mid-1980s, the region has experienced “good vintages, with balanced ripening and sustainable production levels.’ ” If the warming trend continues, the region’s capability for quality Pinots will “depend on the rate of change. If it warms too much, they may need to look at other varieties in the future, while other areas that are more coastal or northerly may become more Pinot capable.”
As long-term climate changes occur, challenges facing the wine industry include “changes in suitable location for some varieties, a reduction in the optimum harvest season for high-quality wines, and greater management of already scarce water resources,” Jones wrote in the July/August 2006 issue of Australian & New Zealand Wine Industry Journal.
Jones isn’t completely a pessimist. “The climates of our planet change all the time,” he notes. “It’s just that we also have this factor of 6 billion people, and the things we do are clearly contributing to the change that is going on. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the public doesn’t understand the greenhouse effect and our role in it.” However, he believes that “people in agriculture are more aware of changes than most people and make adaptations along the way.”
One of those growers, Wayne Parker of Melrose Vineyards, located in Oregon’s Umpqua Valley, doesn’t dispute Jones, but he believes grape growers have better learned how to grow “big reds.” He also thinks change is part of a long-term cycle that allows his grapes, which he uses and also sells to Oregon and Washington wineries, to benefit by having more “hang time” on the vine.
“I feel it ever so slightly over the last 30, 40 years,” Parker says of climate change. “Global warming is a fact of nature, and if we’re in a region where it benefits us, God bless us.”
While some of California’s historic wine growing regions may suffer adverse effects, regions of the Pacific Northwest may benefit. Given enough time, Robertson and other wine producers along the Snake River may find themselves the new Napa.
By Lee Juillerat
Lee Juillerat is the regional editor for the Herald and News in Klamath Falls, Oregon. He enjoys researching and writing about Northwest wines. |
