Canary in the coal mine

 Michael - Alternate Thursdays

Like our protagonist, Kubu, I’m partial to good wine. Maybe this isn’t a coincidence since Stanley also has a taste for the fruit of the vine. Among all the possible negative outcomes of climate change, probably the demise of the current leading vineyards isn’t high up on the list of potential disasters. However, it’s interesting that while the debate about global warming was going on, some wineries were already thinking ahead.

Canary cage complete with oxygen cylinder
 to resuscitate the bird

Spanish wine master, Miguel Torres, said that wine is “the canary in the coal mine,” referring to the old practice of using a canary to predict carbon monoxide accumulation in a mine. When the canary stops singing, get out of there. The wine canary hasn’t stopped singing, but it’s definitely sounding a bit throaty right now.

So what can be done?

One option is just to harvest the grapes earlier, but the balance is often wrong. Alcohol is higher, tannins more bitter, acidity lower. Slow ripening is important, and it’s not only warmer summers that’s a problem. Warmer winters encourage early sprouting, and then a deep frost can damage the plants. 2021 was a particularly horrible year in France—a very mild winter was followed by several days of below freezing temperatures. The country’s total wine harvest was only about two thirds of the usual volume, disastrous for the growers. There are other problems as well. Drought conditions and wild fires have affected vineyards, particularly in South Africa and Australia, but Europe is having a turn now too. Even if the vineyard itself doesn't burn, ash settling on the grapes may later affect the taste of the wine.

Fire in the Cape winelands

Of course, it’s not all doom and gloom. Germany, known for cool climate, and often sweeter, whites is now extending white vineyards into regions that were previously too cold, and producing some satisfactory reds in the warmer areas. So is England where cold resistant cultivars are being replaced by the desirable cultivars that are struggling with the new climates in France. Pinot noir, chardonnay.

Cabernet pfeffer
Looks hardy enough...

A second approach is to plant new varietals, or old varietals that are out of fashion – basically anything that survives hot weather. Some of the winemaking fans of these grapes say they are more interested in preserving historical cultivars than addressing climate change, but I’d guess they have an eye on the thermometer as well. An example is California’s recent interest in cabernet pfeffer. I have no idea what it tastes like. Perhaps I’ll find out at Bouchercon.

Yet another strategy is to find cooler slopes, perhaps not facing the sun as directly, or higher terrain. Some of the larger Spanish wineries began planting at higher altitudes quite a few years before climate change became accepted as a problem in the industry. Now they have a head start. (They are also selecting cuttings from vines that seem more heat resistant. But only time will tell how the wine from that selection will taste.) Generally, moving to cooler areas is successful and it’s happening in Spain, France, and Argentina. But it’s not an easy option for South Africa or Australia, which are already growing grapes in their coolest climates.

In the meanwhile, you may want to stock up your cellars, particularly those pinot noirs and chardonnays. The future ones may not be as good and will be more expensive if they are.

After all, a nice, chilled, white in the shade may take the edge off the heat.

Food and Wine

Burgundy wine country. Photo Jill Wilson

With a title picture like that, there are no prizes for guessing that I’m in France this week visiting a few of my favorite areas with wine-loving friends from Australia. I’m not going to bore you with a list of restaurants visited, meals eaten, and wines quaffed, but on Monday we had a different and interesting visit to a Burgundy wine négociant - Olivier Leflaive. They feel that most wine is drunk with food, and yet most tasting is done in a fairly rushed environment of one wine after another with no opportunity for comparison and certainly no wine and food pairing beyond, perhaps, a crust of bread and a swig of water to clear the palate before the next wine.  In an attempt to move beyond that, they cleared their tasting room, added a number of tables, hired a chef, and set up a food and wine pairing to show off their wines.  The food is good regional cuisine – nothing fancy – and it is chosen to work with the wines available for tasting.  The five course lunch is 25 euros and you can use it as a backdrop to 5, 7 or 9 wines.  Needless to say we chose the last option.

I know a few other wineries attempt something similar.  Rockford in South Australia, for example, has wine lunches.  But there the focus is on the food and company with the wine to complement; at Leflaive it’s the other way around.

Leflaive is in Puligny-Montrachet, one of the great white wine areas of Burgundy so Chardonnay is the main focus.  However, they also make fine reds (pinot noir, of course) from the regions of Volnay and Pommard a little to the north.  Unfortunately, when we fetched our friends at the railway station on Saturday, we were caught in a vicious thunderstorm which peppered the car with hail. That hail wreaked havoc on those red wine grapes, so 2014 is going to be a sad vintage there.

Olivier Leflaive

But back to Olivier Leflaive.  Olivier himself was something of a prodigal son.  He studied business in Paris, but then became an entertainer and subsequently an agent for preforming artists, turning his back on the wine business (except for drinking it, I would guess).  However, in 1981 he returned to take over the business and it went from strength to strength.  He retired in 2010, handing over the reins to the next generation.

The tasting starts with an ordinary chardonnay – cheap and cheerful.  But with a small cheese puff, it suddenly has more richness and flavor.  As sommelier Régis put it – the wine is alive not only because it is changing in the bottle over time, but also because you are changing – your mood, your age, what you are eating, who you are with.  You will enjoy the expensive wines not only because they are better, but because you know they are special.  On the other hand, the cheap and cheerful will work with good company and food and can still be memorable.  With a chuckle, he suggested at least a case of each wine in the cellar to be tried from time to time, not so much to see how the wine has changed, but to see how you have changed.  And, of course, to try with various foods.

Régis indicating the different wine regions during the tasting

We went on to a parallel tasting of three 2010 whites, one each from Meersault, Chassagne-Montrachet and Puligny-Montrachet.  Some of us found our favorite one changed with the seafood pâté. Then the same flight with premier crus (one step up) from 2009 with, and without, chicken with morel mushrooms.  Then reds with, and without, cheese and as expected a huge taste change with the food.

Dessert and coffee were necessary punctuation points, but one’s mind remained fixed on the wines and the extraordinary diversity they had exhibited in terms of vintage, area, food pairing.  It’s all summed up by a French saying we saw at the restaurant we ate at last night: “Je boirai du lait le jour où les vaches mangeront du raison!” That is: “I’ll drink milk the day cows eat grapes!” 

Santé!

Michael - Thursday