Vineyards can be found on mountainsides and valley floors, in areas that receive plenty of rain or are extremely arid, alongside coasts, or tucked inland. But few aspects of a wine’s origin receive more attention than the amount of heat that its grapes are subjected to during their growing season. Wines are frequently categorized primarily by climate: warmer and cooler regions.
Yet, such a seemingly simple distinction isn’t quite so straightforward.
“It is hard to paint a region overall with such broad strokes to say you are either ‘warm climate’ or ‘cool climate,’” says Laura Jones, winemaker at Skipstone Ranch in Sonoma County’s Alexander Valley.
The importance of the diurnal shift
The best warm-weather regions aren’t typically marked by unrelenting heat. A balanced wine requires the sugar and depth of ripeness, as well as adequate acidity, to keep it fresh. Wines produced from grapes grown where the nighttime low temperatures aren’t much cooler than the daytime highs come off as one-dimensionally rich and, often, flat.
Conversely, grapes grown in regions that are too cold would not achieve adequate ripeness, which would result in wines with overly tart and often “green” flavors.
Producers search for balance, whether in the form of a wide diurnal shift — the swing between daytime high temperatures and nighttime lows — or some other aspect.
“This can be achieved both via your site selection and with practices in the vineyard,” says Jones. “Alexander Valley is a warm region, which makes it well-suited for the Bordeaux varieties we are famous for. Our special positioning in the southern end of the proposed new Pocket Peak appellation provides us with three amazing moderating influences..."
Click HERE to read the full article.