Will our wines weather the heat?

This year’s vintage was successful, but local winemakers hope for rain and cooler temperatures to assure next year’s harvest.

By ILANA TEITELBAUM
Ella Valley vineyards (photo credit: Courtesy)
Ella Valley vineyards
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Is the summer gone yet? I can’t wait to see the back of it, and I’m sure I’m not alone.
In Jerusalem, we are spoiled, as we’ve come to expect summer nights to be cool and refreshing, but this summer we simply saw no respite. Our invited house guests slept on the porch. I had insomnia on the porch. And the mosquitoes won, repeatedly.
What with tomatoes suddenly worth their weight in gold, the dairy shortage, a threatened chickpea shortage (could the country survive?) and various withered fruits and vegetables at the supermarket attesting to the horrid toll of this year’s heat waves, it’s enough to drive one to drink.
So, on that topic: while I’m sure the sweet kiddush wine I was raised with is in as fine fettle as ever, the real question is how the wineries that make the good stuff are faring.
Wine-making is a complex and delicate process, and one that Israel is relatively new to pursuing.
During this inferno of a summer, it occurred to me to wonder how Israel’s wineries are weathering the extreme heat, if you’ll pardon the phrase.
Eli Ben-Zaken, founder of Domaine du Castel winery in the Judean Hills, describes the past season as “very challenging from a wine-making point of view.”
Among the challenges Ben- Zaken cites is that heat causes grapes to produce more sugar – which incidentally may explain why the grapes sold in supermarkets this year were preternaturally sweet. A higher sugar content in grapes yields a higher-than-usual content of alcohol in the wine.
“More alcohol gives the wine another taste,” explains Ben- Zaken. “This is what nature has given us this year.”
This year, vintners across Israel rushed to harvest their grapes much earlier than usual, to save them from the ravages of the heat – and because the heat had caused the grapes to ripen more quickly.
“This year, because of the change in the weather and the general increase in temperature, there were numerous surprises: a number of varieties ripened earlier than usual – by almost a month – while others ripened at their normal time,” writes Tal Pelter, founder of Pelter winery, in a newsletter to the public.
To mitigate the effects of the heat wave, says Ben-Zaken, this year Domaine du Castel “made wine in another style; more of a modern, New World style wine than the European style we usually make; though we’re not sure, only time will tell. We tried to make our wine as classical as before, but are not sure yet that we succeeded.”
A common theme that emerged, in speaking to wineries about the heat wave, is that it’s too early to know how the 2010 vintage was affected by the heat wave. Pelter describes this year’s vintage as “interesting,” but remarks that it is only until after the wines have been aged and bottled that the true results can be known.
Doron Rav Hon, Ella Valley winemaker, describes the speed of this year’s harvest – a process that usually lasts through the end of October – was instead completed by the beginning of September, to rescue the grapes. But the results of the harvest were “surprisingly good,” he says.
To Rav Hon, of greater concern is next year’s vintage, not that of this year, because of the critical importance to the vines is a cold winter.
“Right now, because of the heat wave there is no cold, so the vines continue to grow; we call it vegetative growing, because it’s just the leaves that are growing, not the grapes. We would like to see the vines getting to sleep.”
If the vines don’t get to sleep, or go through a period of hibernation, explains Rav Hon, it can affect the quality of the grapes.
Ben-Zaken agrees, adding, “I think we need a good winter to start fresh on our new year.”
Another concern about the winter, in addition to the temperature, is the lack of rain. Rav Hon says, “It will cost us more watering next year if we have a poor winter in rain.”
Meanwhile, Israeli wine connoisseurs can already gauge the effects of the heat wave on Israel’s wine by trying this year’s Chardonnay, which of all the grape varieties was harvested earliest – in July – and has been bottled and made available in stores. “The Chardonnay was saved because it came just before the heat wave, so it was not much influenced by the heat,” explains Ben-Zaken.
We’ll drink to that.
For more news and views on the environment, local and regional, visit www.greenprophet.com.