In January, for those of you who weren’t following our play by play of the II International Conference on Climate and Wine, Catavino spent three days cornering wine celebrities, in order to get a better sense as to how wine is being affected both now and in the future by the fluctuating climate conditions. Stubborn and wonderfully determined people such as Richard Smart, Bruno Prats, Miguel Torres, Pancho Campo, Carlos de Jesus of Amorim, Dr. Gregory Jones, and of course, Al Gore, all vented their fears and frustrations with the current lackadaisical attitude held throughout the wine world regarding the impact of climate on wine. Each passionate in their own right, but there was one in particular that I had been pining to interview for months.

Having been previously introduced to Oz Clarke through his books and articles, it wasn’t until I saw his charismatic nature in Oz and James’s Big Wine Adventure that I was hooked. This BBC television program, first aired in 2006, and was undoubtedly one of my favorite wine programs, if only to see Oz flirt with yet another woman. His coy and passionate nature was fun and made learning about Bordeaux and Languedoc-Roussillon entertaining, rather than intimidating. Therefore, to have the opportunity to not only see him in person, but to interview him, albeit a little daunting, was great fun. Add a camera and question that impassions him, and Oz will keep going for hours, interweaving personal stories and jokes with highly specific wine facts that will eventually leave your head spinning.

That said, we would like to thank Richard Gillespie for filming and producing our …

In Al Gore’s speech to us in the final hour of the II International Conference on Climate and Wine, he was asked by an attendee of the conference if children were being adequately educated on the topic of climate change. His response was simply that no, they weren’t, but that we needed to take great caution when we do choose to educate them on the inevitable, considering that it is they who will see the most dire consequences of this phenomenon. And if, and when, we do decide to step up to the plate and present them with the facts of figures of tomorrow’s changing world, we must do so with great caution so that they may not look upon the future with fear and hesitation, but rather hope. And when they look back to the past at their parent’s efforts during a time of change and instability, they will do so with pride that their ancestors stood up against great odds to make the hard choices necessary to permit change towards a greener, healthier, more balanced, existence: an existence that changed its focus from consumption to preservation, from greed to sharing and from fear to openness.

As an educator, I took these ideas to heart, because I still feel that the majority of people look at this issue as if it is too big, too large and too ominous to tackle. And because CO2 is odorless and invisible, we can’t quantifiably measure our contribution against it. If we had a little dial mounted in our kitchen tracking each time we chose not to use our car, chose energy efficient appliances or recycled our waste, maybe this would make a difference, but for now, many feel as if they cannot do anything to significantly change …

After Gore’s speech, the keynote speaker at the II International Conference on Climate and Wine in Barcelona was allotted a certain amount of time dedicated to questions and answers. One question fielded by Pancho Campo and asked of Al Gore was, “what is the responsibility of the wine industry in relation to the climate crisis?”

After I had watched this clip for the umpteenth time, it dawned me that his passionate speech about brand loyalty as it relates to trust is really no different than what makes a blog successful. Trust is the key to any successful relationship and the foundation for future growth. It is because of trust that you choose to read and interact with us. It is because of trust that we come to many of you for advice and clarity. Without this trust, without this dynamic relationship, you would not share our site with your friends, nor would they with theirs. I say this because web 2.0 is the new marketplace, where friends tell friends about products they adore, sites they appreciate and companies they respect. I love this clip by Gore because it not only enforces a long held belief Ryan and I have lived by for years, but it give it a tangibility that it didn’t have before. Wineries who place conservation as a priority and the life of their consumers as a focal point is a winery that will have a better chance of succeeding in the future. Interesting thought, is it not?!

Video content from the conference was produced by Richard Gillespie please contact us if you are interested in hiring Richard for your next project.

The second day of the Cambio Climatico y Vino is starting off to be a take on what wine makers are experiencing, and how they are adapting to what appears to be a foregone conclusion on the question of climate change and wine.

GENERAL HIGHLIGHTS FROM AL GORE’S SPEECH

More moisture leads to more storms and downpours, which in turn, create more flooding.

More drought and more flooding has been predicted in the future.

Many refugees are having to move as a result of rising sea levels.

Sea level increases could be much higher in the next decades than we’ve ever seen in the past decades

A 6 meter increase in sea level would lead to 450 million refugees, and in turn, to massive political, social and economic difficulties.

What is the truth? Our generation is being asked on behalf of future generations of bearing a large responsibility of changing our habits.

3 Causes that have Contributed to Climate Change in the last 100 years between both Humankind and the Planet

1. We have seen a quadrupling of population. Consequences: major impact on the planet’s resources.

2. Technology has impacted climate change by aiding in human longevity, and therefore, increasing population and stressing resources.

3. Attitudes have been numbed because CO2 is tasteless and odorless; hence, humans haven’t reacted promptly, because CO2 isn’t tangible. Coal, oil and natural gas have been pulled out of the earth; whereby, adding to higher CO2 levels.Example: The temperature of Venus is 455 degrees Fahrenheit,as a result of CO2 floating in its atmosphere. Earth will continue in the exact same path, as we draw fossil fuels out of the ground and into our own …

Not a week ago, I was seriously considering prostituting my wines to get entry into the II International Conference on Climate Change and Wine hosted in Barcelona. For years, Al Gore (the keynote speaker for the event) has been one of my role models, a man willing to stand up for truth, acceptance and change on both the micro and macro level. His film, An Inconvenient Truth, shocked and frightened me into seeing how dramatically the world is changing, yet comforting me to know that change is possible if we’re willing to see the reality for what it is. Clearly, with a conference boasting of an impressive list of speakers fighting for conservation in winemaking including, Pancho Campo (a pioneer in conservation and winemaking, as well as the host) and Dr. David Smart (renowned scientist at UC Davis), just to name a few, I was eager to attend.

Years ago, a close friend of mine shared a personal mantra of his that reminded me of Al Gore’s message: we are all comfortable being uncomfortable. I love this expression because it sums up exactly what humans tend to do when life gets rocky; they fall into complacence. Rather than ripping away the blinders and accepting that we are all responsible for this planet, many choose to keep them on, blaming and giving excuses for why temperatures are rising, glaciers are melting and storms are increasing in intensity. Coincidence? I think not!

Climate Change in Spain

A few years back, Decanter wrote an interesting article on the consequences of climate change on Spanish vintners like Bodegas Torres, reporting that:

Increasingly hostile conditions associated with climate change are forcing vintners to head north.

The most dire predictions call for up to half …