Pinot Noir May Move in Oregon

Filed in archive Northwestern US Wines on January 2, 2007

No one can really agree, unless you talk with folks like Al Gore, on why the world's climate seems to be changing, but changing it is, and with change comes a rethinking of grape growing and wine making in general.

Wine makers in Oregon are already starting to hatch a plan for their beloved Pinot Noir according to this article, "Climate change could be more than just sour grapes:"

Climate change may lead to hotter, drier heat waves, heavier rains and quicker snowmelts in the future, scientists say -- and a change in the taste of Oregon's signature pinot noir wines also could be on the horizon.

Vintners already are shifting their vines uphill to keep them cool during warmer summers. But researchers forecast that by the end of this century, pinot noir grapes, the centerpiece of the state's $1 billion wine industry, will grow better along Puget Sound than they do in the Willamette Valley.

Research shows that the heavy rains of November were a preview of the future in the Northwest: Heavier rain will begin earlier in the winter; rain will fall in place of snow, even in the mountains, and all that extra rain will rush downstream, posing the threat of floods.

The storms are expected to collide more directly with the Cascade Range, which may wring yet more moisture from the clouds, Eric Salathe, a Climate Impacts Group research scientist, told The Portland Oregonian.

December once was the rainiest month in much of the Northwest, but now it's November, data show. In November, almost 50 inches fell in Oregon's Coast Range west of Salem, beating a December 1996 record that was thought to be unbreakable.

And projections from the University of Washington show that by the 2090s, the Northwest's mountain snows will melt almost three months sooner than they do now.