Historical long-term cultivarxclimate suitability data to inform viticultural adaptation to climate change

Grape quality is regulated by complex interactions between environments and cultivars. Growing suitable cultivars in a given region is essential for maintaining viticulture sustainability, particularly in the face of climate change. We created a database composed of three different subsets of data. The first subset was created by digitizing and curating the seminal report of Amerine and Winkler (1944), which provided grape harvest dates (GHDs), the quality of musts and wines, and wine tasting notes for 148 cultivars from 1935-1941 across five contrasting climatic regions of California. To put this dataset into a climate change context, we collected GHDs and must sugar content (degrees Brix) records from 1991 to 2018 for four representative cultivars in one of the five studied regions (Napa). Finally, we integrated meteorological data of the five regions during 1911-2018 and calculated bioclimatic indices important for grape. The resulting database is unique and valuable for assessing the fitness between cultivars across environments in order to mitigate the effects of climate change.

Automated summary

Grape quality is regulated by the complex interactions between environments and cultivars. Growing suitable cultivars in a specific region is crucial for the sustainability of viticulture, especially with the challenges posed by climate change. A unique and valuable database was created, combining historical data and climate change context, to assess the suitability of different grape cultivars in different environments and mitigate the impact of climate change.