Global Warming and Wine
Apart from Violeta’s transfer to Williamsburg and some badly-needed friend and family summer reconnection/outdoor feasting, much of my time away from the restaurant lately has been spent working on a couple of Rioja-sponsored projects: a sommelier trip to the region and an educational DVD/webcast on Rioja, co-produced by the James Beard Award winning team at the Culinary Institute of America Greystone in Napa (about which projects, more in future posts).
John Barkley, a key member of that team, alerted me to the fact late last week that Pancho Campo of the Spanish Wine Academy, perhaps the world’s leading authority on the effects of global warming on the wine industry, would be visiting Greystone on Friday. We promptly made arrangements for an interview.
So, it was rather serendipitous that I should open my inbox today to find that my friend Valerie had sent me a link to an National Public Radio report on global warming and wine, which included Sr. Campo as a major source.
Besides being a good introduction to the subject, the piece also sheds some interesting light on the role of elevation in wine production, the realities of vintage variation in traditional French wine production, and the evolving tastes of the modern-day wine consumer.
Click here for a link.