'Tomorrow's Wine', a compendium of solutions for addressing climate change

ldquo;Quel vin pour demain?” or “Tomorrow’s Wine. Wine in the Face of Climate Change”, by Jérémy Cukierman MW, wine merchant and director of Kedge Wine School; Hervé Quénol, geographer and climatologist with CNRS; and sommelier Michèle Bouffard, will undoubtedly leave its mark on this season’s wine literature. Why? Because the convergence of viewpoints by opinion formers and scientists on adapting the wine industry to climate change is still a fairly rare occurrence. The topic is more commonly analysed from a scientific and technical perspective, and more often than not the analysis paints a pessimistic picture.

“We wanted to treat things differently, and to share knowledge about the subject. It is not always easy to engage with other wine regions, especially in the wine industry which is fragmented with multiple players”, explains Jérémy Cukierman. The premise was therefore to bring together experiments conducted in wine regions around the world aimed at adapting to climate change, as seen through the complementary skill sets of the three authors. “We are sharing everything that seemed inspiring to us, all the worthy initiatives, the questions and the answers. The book embraces the entire supply chain with a single ambition, and that is to take a positive approach to an issue that is often anxiety-inducing or alarmist”, adds Cukierman, who continues: “Announcing major predictions should be done with caution. The great vineyard sites were chosen for a combination of factors, one of which is climate. Only this factor has changed and Vitis vinifera is a very resilient plant with the ability to adapt. Some ancient forecasts predicted that certain grape varieties would disappear, but they are still here!”

The book’s captivating resource is that it manages to list a remarkable number of ongoing initiatives, demonstrating how the wine industry has taken the issue on board in a major way. One example, for those who weren’t already familiar with it, is the technique of “bridging” utilised in the Northern Rhone. Trained as high bush vines, the canopy is not trimmed and the vine shoots are attached to the neighbouring vine to form a bridge. The system increases the surface area of shade and maintains broad-ranging foliage, addressing the challenge of protecting the fruit from sunlight.