Wine industry to benefit from dryer warmer weather
Wine industry to benefit from dryer warmer weather,
UC weather expert says
April 14,
2013
The New Zealand wine industry is
likely to benefit from a long term trend towards increasing
dryer and warmer summers, a University of Canterbury (UC)
weather expert says.
This is supported by a recent
international study that suggests the country is better
placed than most other established wine producing nations of
the world to adapt to climate change.
UC
meteorologist Professor Andy Sturman says production of wine
grapes benefits from relatively constant warm and sunny
conditions over the summer, which helps the grapes to mature
and develop the unique flavours of the different varieties.
``The impact of changing weather patterns is
likely to vary across the country, because of the effect of
New Zealand’s complex and mountainous terrain. So some
parts of the country may experience rather different
temperature and rainfall trends than others.
``It
appears that the belt of anticyclones that circles the
southern hemisphere has drifted southward. This shift in
climate zones is not likely to continue indefinitely so will
probably stabilise after a while and New Zealand may settle
into a new weather regime,’’ Professor Sturman says.
New Zealand’s wine exports earned about $1.2
billion last year. The area of vines in the Marlborough
region alone totalled 22,861 ha in 2012, which is about 66
percent of the national vineyard area.
Professor
Sturman is heading a $500,000 international research project
into climate and vineyards which is expected to result in an
increase of up to 10 percent in income for the New Zealand
wine industry.
The two-year research project began
in Marlborough this year and is using cutting-edge
high-resolution computer systems to investigate localised
vineyard weather. The international research team includes
experts from Plant and Food, NIWA, and several French wine
research experts.
``We are setting up a network of
weather stations across the vineyard areas of the
Marlborough region, as well as high resolution air
temperature monitoring networks over selected areas, to
investigate in detail the relationship between grape growth
and the microclimate. Plant and Food Research will be
analysing the grapevine response alongside our climate
monitoring to enable us to identify these
relationships.
``We are also running high
resolution local weather and climate models that will allow
us to understand the nature and controls of small scale
variations in climate across the vineyard region. These will
form the basis of models that can be used to help the wine
industry adapt to the varying climate.
``Quite a
few wine producers in Marlborough have been helpful in
allowing us access to their vineyards to conduct the
research, including Pernod Ricard, which is the largest
company in the area.
``Our intensive analysis is
currently only in Marlborough, but once we have tested our
models we plan to apply them to other vineyard regions of
New Zealand.’’
The data for the past few
decades suggests that the typical variability in New
Zealand’s weather from year to year will continue, but the
overall trend is for more dry and warm summers resulting
from an increase in occurrence of anticyclones (high
pressure systems) over the New Zealand
region.
Professor Sturman will give a public
lecture on recent weather trends at UC next Wednesday (April
17). For further details: http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/wiw/
ENDS