The researchers focused on Bordeaux because its wine region relies exclusively on rainfall for irrigation and because of the long term records of wine scores. Photo: Christophe ARCHAMBAULT / AFP/FileWhat makes a good or bad year for wine? It's a question that vexes not only vintners but also scientists, who've long looked to weather conditions to provide the answer.
By analyzing decades worth of wine critic scores from Bordeaux, the research shows that good years are characterized by warmer temperatures, greater differences between winter and summer, and earlier, shorter growing seasons."I don't think that climate change is a good thing," Andrew Wood, lead author of the study told AFP.
When a certain threshold is reached, quality drops dramatically "and you can even get the situation in which grapes are dropped from the vine," said Wood. They focused on Bordeaux because its wine region relies exclusively on rainfall for irrigation and because of the long term records of wine scores.But the paper argues that because there is broad consensus about what makes good versus bad wine, the taste scores offer a reliable means to monitor how crops are changing over time -- and they attempted to statistically control for the effects of improving winemaking technology.