Norwegian winemaker Bjørn Bergum talks to his vines.
“You have to have a connection with them. When I woke up this morning, there was an inch of snow. I was telling them, ‘Don’t be afraid – the weather will improve in the afternoon.'”
Perhaps Bjørn’s plants need an extra boost; they are growing 61 degrees north of the equator — far outside the 30-50 degree latitude traditionally considered optimal for winemaking.
Global warming is pushing vineyards further north and south, towards the poles.
This trend is perfectly clear, according to Greg Jones, a climatologist specializing in grape and wine production and owner of a winery, Abacela, in Oregon (USA).
“A lot of our cold climate boundaries have shifted. They’ve been farther north in the northern hemisphere and farther south in the southern hemisphere.”
The Slinde Vineyard, which Bjorn manages with partner Halldis, is at the far end of these new boundaries. Near the Sognefjord, Norway’s longest and deepest fjord, the vines grow on slopes that get the sun but face snow-capped mountains.
Bjørn remembers the fjord freezing over in winter during his childhood, but he says it never happened again. He’s noticed other changes in the weather over the years.
“When it rains, it rains more, but when it’s hot, it’s hotter too.”
While he cares about the planet and his own country, he recognizes that, as a wine producer, climate change is in his favor.
Even so, it is still a challenge to produce wine this far north. Bjørn says it takes dedication.
“I do everything for my 2,700 babies. I stay up at night if I need to, to help them survive if a frost is on the way.”
He works with a variety of grapes to create blends with tropical notes and a mineral content that he says comes from the loamy soil.
A secret ingredient is the special quality of the northern light.
“We have a lot of light here. That’s our advantage. And we have cold nights. And we also have the sun from the reflections of the fjord on the steep slope.”
“So the grapes, the leaves, absorb a lot of aromas on their skin, and we take them out to make good wines.”
But it’s not easy to convince everyone that Norwegian wine is worth tasting, says Bjørn.
“Some people say, ‘Don’t tell anyone, but I’ve never tasted a wine like this. It’s really good — maybe the best I’ve ever tasted.’
“But they don’t dare say that when they go back to Germany or other countries because I think they want to integrate with the wine world, in which case it’s not very nice to say that they tasted a good Norwegian wine.”
Having won gold medals in Norwegian wine competitions, Bjørn is eager to try some international medals, but he believes he will only have a chance of winning if the judgment is blind.
“If they knew the wine came from Norway, they probably wouldn’t taste it. But when it’s a blind tasting, they have to taste it and you’ll get the grade you deserve, I think.”
Bjørn and Halldis plan to enter the market this year. It’s early days and they still have a lot to prove, but Bjørn believes they are creating a new wine-growing frontier in Norway — with five producers within a 20km radius.
“We’ve already established a team of winegrowers here in Sognefjord. It’s only 20,000 vines, but we’re just getting started and I think in five or ten years we’ll probably have a small wine district.”
But while climate change may be offering an opportunity for producers in previously uncharted territories, it poses a serious challenge for the world’s most established wine regions.
“I did an analysis of 25 of the best places in the world to grow grapes, looking at their long-term historical temperature data,” says Jones. places that weren’t getting hot, there were no places that were getting cold.”
In Bordeaux, this climate change is noticeable, according to the owner of Chateau George 7 in Fronsac, Sally Evans.
“We’ve had three periods of spring frost in the last five years since I got here. And before that, you probably hadn’t heard about it in 20 or 30 years. So these extreme weather events seem to be getting more and more common. And that’s what it is. difficult.”
She says rising global temperatures can also be tasted in the glass of wine.
“When you have warmer temperatures, the fruit ripens and there’s a lot more sugar in the grapes, which gives you more alcohol when you ferment. The alcohol in wine has probably increased by about two degrees in the last 30 years,” he says. “Sun and heat also affect the acidity of the wine. You need acidity for freshness and overall balance.”
Hot, dry summers can also detract from the fruit’s flavor, she says.
The Bordeaux wine region has introduced new grape varieties better suited to these conditions, but Sally says it will take a generation for them to grow and mature.
In the meantime, she says, winemakers are adapting — pruning later to avoid spring frosts and managing leaf shade to protect grapes from the hot sun.
And she says consumers and producers will have to accept that some well-known wines will have different characteristics in the future.
“What will become typical in 30 years may not be worse in terms of quality – it may even be better – but it may not have the same profile as a wine now.”
Climate change means growers need to adapt to survive, she says.
“I think we’ll see in the next five or ten years how this is impacting people and their livelihoods here in Bordeaux.”
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