Our publications come from cross-disciplinary research that relies on a team of ecologists, climatologists, crop modelers, and experts in winegrape diversity and viticulture. Each publication takes years of work.
In the papers below, learn more about the importance of wine variety diversity in mitigating the effects climate change may bring to the wine industry.
Upcoming: Dangers of limited winegrape diversity in the Anthropocene – Interactive figure of RxS studies.
Diversity buffers winegrowing regions from climate change losses (Morales-Castilla et al. 2020, PNAS):
Figure 1. Global maps of winegrowing. (A) Current winegrowing regions (B) Modeled predictions of cultivar diversity (total number of varieties) under our 0 ◦C reference scenario—all colored pixels show areas predicted as climatically suitable (Calculating Climatic Suitability). (C–E) Predicted effects of climate change on cultivar diversity and distribution under 2 ◦C warming (C), 4 ◦C warming (D), and cultivar turnover.
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Why varietal diversity is critical to winegrowing’s warmer future (Wolkovich & Morales-Castilla 2019, Wine and Viticulture Journal)
Figure 1. As tempertures across the globe have risen significantly since the early 1980s, harvest times have shifted earlier. Here we show (left) global temperature anomalies (the change in global surface temperature relative to 1951-1980 average temperatures) and harvest times (relative to 31 August) averaged across France, and (right) for the Bordeaux region. Temperature anomalies data from NASA-GISS and BEST; harvest data from Daux et al. (2012), Cook and Wolkovich (2016). Note that harvest data ends in 2007, while we show climate data through 2017.
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From Pinot to Xinomavro in the world’s future wine-growing region (Wolkovich et al. 2018, Nature Climate Change)
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Phenological diversity provides opportunities for climate change adaptation in winegrapes (Wolkovich et al. 2017, Journal of Ecology)
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Climate change decouples drought from early winegrape harvests in France (Cook and Wolkovich 2016, Nature of Climate Change)
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Additional Publications:
E.M. Wolkovich. Feb 2023. New Terroir: Climate Resiliency Through Variety Diversity. (non-peer-reviewed) (pdf)
I. Morales-Castilla & E.M. Wolkovich. 2021. Diversity may save wines from climate change.The Science Breaker. https://doi.org/10.25250/thescbr.brk501. (non-peer-reviewed) (article)
E.M. Wolkovich & I. Morales-Castilla. 2019. Climate change: Why varietal diversity is critical to wine- growing’s warmer future. Wine & Viticulture Journal 34(1). (non-peer-reviewed) (pdf)