A THIRST FOR ANSWERS

How are Spanish producers preparing for a future with less water? And how might their actions reshape the identity of some of the country's flagship regions and vineyards?

- STORY FINTAN KERR

Arguments over why - or whether - global warming is happening abound; there are more than a few scenarios out there, and increasingly popular are theories in which human activity isn’t responsible for any of it: wonderfully convenient. But it’s hard (impossible?) to argue with the fact that the climate has changed and is likely to continue to do so.

Those of us working in the wine industry have long been the canary in this coal mine, squawking and getting increasingly worried as average temperatures – measured on a daily basis by weather stations in every major wine region and tracked at a macro level over decades - continue to climb across the world. With this has come the rise of previously overlooked cooler-climate wine regions and a reevaluation of long-established grape varieties in classic, established regions. It has also led to higher alcohol levels resulting from riper fruit - and, without question, drastic changes in weather patterns and extreme weather events. Much of this can be managed, but long-term weather patterns are, unfortunately, beyond our control. The most dangerous of these in the context of wine is undoubtedly drought.

Grapevines are naturally hardy plants and they survive in the most unlikely of scenarios: hanging from the cliffs of Switzerland, and withstanding the harsh winters of Canada and extreme summers of Morocco. What they can’t survive is an extended period with insufficient water. Parts of Spain, notably Catalonia and Andalucía, endured an extended period of limited rainfall from 2021 through much of 2024, when the heavens finally opened and replenished the reservoirs and parched vineyards. But the damage - through stress caused to vines and the condition of soils - and impact on the wines has been eyeopening and has changed the way many producers regard the future of their business.