What is the expected impact of climate change on wine aroma compounds and their precursors in grape?

Abstract

The intrinsic quality of a wine is strongly linked with its volatile compound composition involved in the complexity of wine’s subtle flavor nuances. Those reminiscent of green pepper, herbaceous, blackcurrant, blackberry, figs or prunes are strongly linked with the maturity of the grapes. Nowadays it is well accepted that macroscopic effects of climate change modify the environmental conditions of grape growing at local scale in all the vineyards across the world. The expected effects on grape and wine production can be positive when they increase the maturity of the grapes, but when the conditions are too warm and too dry they induce opposite effects producing grapes and wines with a lower intrinsic quality. These effects were perceived in young wines but also in older wines kept several years in bottle. In this article, we provide some examples of effects of climate change and growing conditions on grapevine and wine quality expressed as flavors and antioxidant composition. We also report some results associated with the incidence of grape growing conditions on white and red wine aging potential and on the composition of old wines. Finally, we discuss the opportunities for vine growers and winemakers to manage the quality of their grapes and wines in this climate change context.

Keywords

• climate change
• aromas