Changing Times, Changing Vines

As heat waves and biting frost cause havoc and alter the oenological maps, Brian Freedman offers advice for collectors navigating this new world.

IN APRIL 2021, oddly beautiful images of vineyards in France, the rows illuminated by fire pots, bounced around the internet. From Chablis to the Jura and beyond, the mercury unseasonably plunged, frost moved in and widespread damage to vines threatened the vintage before it had even begun. Those fire pots were an attempt to heat the air surrounding the vines and prevent ice from forming and hardening.

As a Texan wine producer told me, the problem is not so much global warming as it is global weirding.

She couldn’t have been more right. In October 2022, my first book, Crushed: How a Changing Climate Is Altering the Way We Drink, was published. It explores how climate change – that global weirding – is impacting not just wines and spirits but also the livelihoods of the people who grow the grapes and grains, craft the wines and distil the spirits.

For wine collectors, climate change presents plenty of problems but also opportunities. To guide you through this weird new world, I’ve devised three strategies to help you navigate a dramatically shifting landscape.

Don’t Get Caught Up in the Hype
In 2003, an extreme heatwave hit France and its neighbours, resulting in a vintage of extreme ripeness, particularly in Bordeaux, with wines that, even early on, were generally opulent, powerful and dramatic.