Global warming continues to change Spanish agriculture as we always know it. Spain, the world wine power, if harvesting started 10 to 15 days earlier than normal, This confirms the trend of highlighting the harvest from September to August, the traditional month due to climate change.
On this occasion, a prolonged drought and an extremely hot summer with temperatures around 40 degrees, sometimes higher, affected the earlier start of wineries and cooperatives. In some cases, such as in Jerez, this activity was postponed to July, something completely exceptional and unprecedented.
so much so that “The exception starts in September”Agrifood Cooperatives got to know Fernando Ezquerro, president of the wine industry council.
Although this progress has been made in earlier maturing fruit varieties, it can be expanded to cover all grape varieties in the future.
The real reason? High temperatures accelerate ripening. Experts consulted by Efe agree that it is an increasingly common phenomenon due to climate change.
“If we talk about trends in recent years, yes. there has been an improvement in harvest dates in a generalized way”, confirms José Luis Benítez, managing director of the Spanish Wine Federation (FEV).
On the contrary, if you take a shorter time, you see that just two years ago it was the opposite, and a wet and very late harvest, points out this representative of winemakers.
Climate change has brought average harvest dates to prominence, but has also caused “more variability” to be “very early years and other late years,” said Joaquín Biscayan, wine manager at farmers’ organization COAG. .
It is already harvested in almost all of Spain.
The collection of the oldest varieties began almost throughout the country in general, like foreign whites (chardonnay, sauvignon blanc), foreign reds (syrah, merlot), as well as tempranilla, white and red grapes, the majority.
This applies to titles of origin such as Montilla-Moriles, Jerez, Cava, Rioja and La Mancha.
Actually, Harvest in Jerez region postponed to Julysomething that has never happened before.
César Saldaña, head of the Regulatory Council for Designations of Origin Jerez, Xérès, Sherry and Manzanilla-Sanlúcar de Barrameda, blames climate change and global warming.
There’s still room for other later cultivars like Vizcaíno, Blanca Airén or Tinta Monastrell from COAG, but if that temperature continues, the harvest will also be pushed forward 10 or 15 days, he says.
Good quality, low production
With a lot of heat, the vegetative cycle of the vine ends faster, but grapes do not grow much and clusters are smallerJosé Ugarrio of the Asaja agricultural association explains.
However, the quality that technicians expect is good because the lack of moisture prevents diseases like mold and powdery mildew.
According to Ugarrio, this progress confirms initial estimates for this campaign, which will average less than 42 million hectoliters over the last 6 years; Y 10% to 15% lower than last year’s 39.9 million hectoliters.
According to the Spanish Wine Federation, Spain is the third wine producer (behind France and Italy), first exporter by volume and third by value, in wine production area (about 970,000 hectares).
……
Environment department contact address:[email protected]
Source: Informacion
