How a warming world makes a cooler drop

“All my fellow winemakers are probably going to pray for my soul,” David quipped.

There is, however, a deep and scientific method to the madness.

With a long history of producing French styles, David planted Mediterranean and Italian vines in 2021 after years of research into wine grapes that would grow in a warming climate.

In late February, he harvested the first fruit from his so-called climate change vineyard, planted in a former wheat paddock at the Lowe winery in Mudgee, in central western NSW.

A very early trial of the grapes, which are grown in curved rows nestled between fig, pistachio, feijoa and maple trees, has produced wines with salty, almost briny profiles.

“If you go to lunch or dinner in southern Italy, they eat and drink for four hours,” David said.

"Wine is not there to get them pissed, wine is there to help them digest food, so they often add water or ice.

“These varieties, because they’ve got this salty taste, they’re nice with water.”

Australian wine producers are at the forefront of climate change adaptation, with warming temperatures creating shorter growing seasons that influence flavour.

David is one of many Australian winemakers experimenting with Mediterranean varieties, alongside producers in South Australia’s McLaren Vale region, the NSW Hunter Valley and Beechworth in Victoria.

Climate change has been identified as a major challenge for the $5.7 billion industry, part of a complex crisis also marked by a global shift towards lower alcohol consumption.

“It’s quite a conundrum because climate change is pushing the grape-ripening to different flavours, but also higher alcohol,” Leigh Schmidtke from the Gulbali Institute at Charles Sturt University said.

“But our consumers are wanting more refined flavours, or different flavours and lower alcohol.”

Winemakers are coping with warmer seasons by increasing canopy on their vines, using fertilisers, adopting sustainable practices and experimenting with varying irrigation levels.

Some even use sprays that act as a sunscreen on vine leaves and fruit.

But any change in a vineyard can have unpredictable effects on the character of wine, Prof Schmidtke said.

Ultimately, the answer for some in the Australian industry might be growing vines from the warmer climes of Italy and Spain.

“They have had 1000 years of evolution to become adapted to really hot climates and sometimes with low available water,” Prof Schmidtke said.

“They are very well suited to those really arid climates.”

David became aware of how climate change was compressing the traditional growing season soon after moving from the Hunter Valley to Mudgee 20 years ago.

Recent advances in meteorological research and technology have helped him predict what Mudgee’s climate might be like in 2040.

He is hopeful that the fruit in the climate change vineyard — also dubbed the Latin Quarter — will help him face the disparate challenges of global warming and consumer trends.

“As long as you have wine and you enjoy wine, it speaks of its region, it goes with food, I don’t care how you have it,” David said.

“Just have a glass of wine — I don’t want to kill you with it, I don’t want you to be drunk with it.

“Attitudes have changed a lot.”