Climate trends in a non-traditional high quality wine producing region

Abstract

The global warming may put pressure over some world's highest quality wine producing regions. This fact indicates the need to evaluate the presence of climate change in non-traditional wine producing regions of the Globe. Therefore, the goals of this study were to detect trends in rainfall and air temperature series obtained from three locations of the eastern part of the State of São Paulo, Brazil (a non-traditional high quality wine producing region) and to evaluate the effect of the detected climate trends on agrometeorological indices frequently used to indicate suitable areas for wine production. The trend analyses were applied to maximum and minimum air temperature series, rainfall series and to the following agrometeorological parameters: heliothermal index, cool night index and growing degree-days. These three indices were selected due to their previous use in studies that address the effect of regional climate conditions on the general wine style. The analyses took into account the grape phenological aspects for both summer and winter growing seasons. The results found in this study support the hypothesis of the presence of climate trends in the wine producing regions of the eastern part of the State of São Paulo-Brazil. These trends are mostly linked to changes in the minimum air temperature. The results also reveal a shortening in the duration of grapevines phenological phases and a change to warmer conditions during the ripening Months. These changes are consistent with the climate changes observed in other wine producing regions of the world and may negatively affect the wine production of the eastern part of the State of São Paulo.