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When Courtney Kingston travels to the Casablanca Valley, heading to the vineyard she runs with her sister-in-law in Valparaiso, she likes to walk to the upper section of her property. There, two reservoirs capture rainwater that then irrigates part of the 140 hectares of vineyards at Viña Kingston. “Right now, the upper reservoir is overflowing,” says Kingston, who is a fourth-generation winemaker in her family. When it’s full, the reservoir fills with birds and reflects the sky. “It’s incredible. But when I go there and it’s completely empty, it’s a clear reminder,” Kingston continues, that winter rains are starting later and later.
The problem isn’t just the rains. The past few years have brought a series of changes to Casablanca’s ecosystem: summers are more intense, nights are colder, frosts are more unpredictable and the weather is increasingly erratic. Casablanca, a riverless valley within the Aconcagua wine region, faces a version of the problems that plague wine industries around the world, from France’s Provence to California’s Napa Valley.
Grapes are one of the most sensitive crops in the world: that is why the terroirThe characteristics that determine a wine’s character depend not only on the climate of an agricultural area, but also on the soil, rainfall, the angle of the hill and the hours of sunlight the vine receives. Over the decades, vineyards develop carefully calibrated systems to interact with these characteristics and give their wines their own identity. But climate change is altering almost all of these factors at a dizzying pace, and Chile’s wine industry, the largest in Latin America and the twelfth largest in the world, is struggling to adapt at the same speed.
“The afternoon sun will cook my fruit”
Around 2000, the valley received 400 to 450 millimeters of rain annually. Over the past few years, the average has hovered around 300, with some years reaching 100 millimeters. After a couple of seasons of low rainfall, explains Andrés Campana, the winery’s winemaker, farmers must choose which areas to irrigate and which not. “That’s why, if 10 years ago the Casablanca valley had about 5,500 hectares, today it has about 3,000,” he says.
The situation is also a consequence of the drought that Chile has experienced over the past 16 years. Although the United Nations has determined that climate change is not responsible for it, the organization has shown that this process has increased temperatures in the region, “which has probably reduced water availability and worsened the impacts of the drought.”
The proximity to the sea determines the humidity and low temperatures in the Casablanca Valley, known for its white wines. These characteristics, explains Campana, create light wines, with a lower alcohol concentration. But as temperatures in the valley increase, it is more difficult to achieve this profile. “If I defoliate [las viñas] In the morning, the afternoon sun will cook my fruit.”
High afternoon temperatures decrease acidity, concentrate more sugar, and create heavier, more alcoholic wines. As José Alcalde, professor of enology at the Catholic University of Chile, points out, this increase in temperatures will also decrease nighttime coolness, making it difficult to produce wines with the same level of acidity. The change, says Alcalde, will particularly affect the Chardonnay variety, the wine that makes the valley famous. The particular aromas of this variety, which are “floral and tropical,” tend to degrade with high temperatures.
Winemaker Campana adds that winters in the valley are now drier and shorter, meaning plants sprout earlier, when they are still prone to frost. A hard frost can destroy more than half of certain varieties, such as Pinot Noir — known as the broken heart grape for its sensitivity to soil and climate — and Chardonnay. Other varieties, such as Sauvignon Blanc or Merlot, tend to sprout later, making them less vulnerable to these changes.
Twenty-five years ago, it was impossible to grow “a very good Cabernet Franc or Malbec,” says the winemaker. But he admits that, with the change in climatic conditions, it is now possible to consider it. For him, resilience to climate change will determine which varieties can be grown and sold: “We have to sit down and think about the future.”
All of the vineyards in Kingston are irrigated, Campana explains, so for now their goal is to increase water-use efficiency. Since the early 2000s, the vineyard has been forced to reduce water use by 30% to 40%. One of the keys was using a subsoiler, a plow that breaks up hardened layers of soil and creates fractures that hold rainwater.
Campana also says that there are alternatives that his vineyard does not have, such as ultraviolet radiation cables that are tied to the wires of the vines and are turned on when frost arrives to prevent low temperatures from damaging the grapes.
But beyond the technology, his activities have changed at the everyday level. The winemaker now defoliates less, no longer in a desire to expose the bunch but to increase ventilation. His vineyard has transitioned to organic farming and has incorporated biodiversity into cover crops with the goal of making its use of water more efficient. They have also explored the idea of planting other varieties. “This year we replanted a block that was producing some of our best wines,” he says. “It was a very difficult decision to rip out those vines, but they were not water efficient.”
As Narciso Novogratz, who has been working as an apprentice at Kingston Vineyards for the past few months, notes, “The seasons are less predictable now, so the skills of winemakers and growers are less attuned to vineyard conditions.” This unpredictability makes detailed knowledge of vineyard conditions all the more valuable. Ultimately, he says, “winemakers know how to play with those changes. More than anything, it’s a matter of adapting.”
“It is necessary for the agricultural sector to actively participate”
But adapting will not be so easy for Chile’s other valleys. In Colchagua, for example, the Apalta valley is particularly vulnerable to changes in climate regimes. The area, known for growing grape varieties such as Carménère, is expected to experience an increase in its minimum and maximum temperatures in the coming years. Professor of oenology Alcalde says that, in that case, the vines may have to move to the coast or south in search of more favourable conditions.
In a country where the wine industry represents 0.5% of the national GDP, the sense of urgency is driving the search for support for these farmers. Since the national industry is export-oriented, Alcalde adds, “the interest of private companies is the most important thing.”
He notes that certain measures have been taken to study the challenges facing the national industry, such as the creation of a consortium of Chilean wineries in association with a number of universities and with financial support from the State. The R&D Consortium studies the main problems and limitations of national viticulture and aims to connect exports with research funds.
“However, public-private trust is something that still needs to be built,” says the professor. “The initiative remains very private and depends on direct contracts between the wineries and research entities, such as universities.”
Olga Barbosa Prieto, researcher and professor at the Austral University of Chile and founder of the program Wine, Climate Change and Biodiversityadvocates for biodiversity conservation in conjunction with the country’s wine industry. Barbosa says that two pieces of legislation, the Framework Law on Climate Change and the Law on Biodiversity and Protected Areas Services, are yet to be implemented. As the regulations for both laws are still being developed, the expert explains, there is some uncertainty in the agricultural sector. And since Chile’s industry is relatively young, global trends dictate the pace of crops. As a result, “it is a bit difficult to take risks or take new directions without knowing if there will be buyers who want to invest in those varieties.”
But the scientist also maintains that there are no contradictions between biodiversity conservation and the development of the wine industry in Chile, as these are benefits that will be seen in the long term. “It is necessary for the agricultural sector to actively participate in the development of regulations and in the implementation of these laws,” she concludes. In her eyes, this implies understanding and adopting sustainable practices that align with the objectives of conservation and mitigation of climate change.
The Mayor agrees. “The fame of wine is built slowly,” he notes. If a valley changes over time, or if new valleys need to be developed, making them famous is a slow process. “There is a future, but we have to work on it. There is still a lot to do.”
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