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Happy Wine Wednesday!

We’re here to level up your wine game and celebrate the women who work in wine, all while having a grape time.

Today, we’re exploring how climate change is impacting winemaking around the world, then talking to Lynn Phelps Finch, the youngest daughter of Joe Phelps who founded Napa Valley’s iconic Joseph Phelps Vineyards (later acquired by LVMH). So pour yourself a glass and let’s get our learn on!

Climate Change In Your Glass
Fire, Ice, and Wine

Wine grapes are super sensitive. Like, even more sensitive than your fussiest houseplant. Unfortunately, this means that climate change is having a serious effect on the health of grape vines, the winemaking process, and ultimately, the taste in your wine.

After combing through 664 years of weather conditions and harvest dates, scientists found that wine grapes are now harvested an average of 13 days earlier than they were before 1988 (published in the European Geosciences Union journal Climate of the Past). Now, warmer temperatures aren't necessarily all bad. Regions that used to be too cool for wine production can now start making higher quality wines more consistently. Areas like Bordeaux, Burgundy, and Germany have been able to take advantage of warmer vintages (especially 2019) and create higher quality wine as their grapes soak up the sun and ripen more easily. Belgium was able to quadruple their wine production between 2006 and 2018, and even a typically gloomy England has become part of the fine wine scene, along with the Netherlands and Sweden (maybe IKEA will start serving wine with their meatballs).

Here’s where warmer temperatures are bad for the future of wine. You could probably guess that heatwaves and less water means struggling vines. While riper grapes might be good for some varietals and emerging regions, other winemakers in established and traditional regions worry that it’s making their wines fruitier and richer than desired. A grape that ripens too quickly can’t properly develop key characteristics like tannins (which affect texture, mouthfeel, and bitterness) and anthocyanins (which give grape skins their color). It can also mean less acids and more alcohol levels in the resulting wine. Just like us, grapes that spend too much time in the sun can also get sunburnt and experience other damage. This is already happening in some areas such as Southern Australia, which saw an 8% loss in their overall white wine varieties including a 12% drop in chardonnay.

Other negative effects of climate change include less frequent but potentially more severe winter freezes, less winter frosts and a shorter winter which encourage more pests, changes in rainfall patterns resulting in conditions that are too damp or too dry, changes in soil quality, and rising sea levels which might change coastlines and affect winemakers nearby. Increased flooding and wildfires can also devastate vineyards and the resulting smoke can taint the taste of the wine, while the drought and decreased water levels continue to impact agriculture and people overall. Winemakers are responding by combating these effects in different ways, including moving their vineyards, experimenting with warmer weather grapes, and using technology to help with the changing harvesting and winemaking process.

What does this mean for us, the wine drinker, in the future?

A traditionally elegant pinot noir from a cooler climate starts to taste like a fruit-driven, warmer climate pinot. Your favorite winery moves further north. A winemaker abandons a cooler weather varietal to grow a heartier grape that can survive a hot summer. Strict Old World wine laws change to accommodate new plantings. Your go-to wine bar starts serving wines from…England. And the worst: decreased production of wine overall. In fact, some researchers believe that rising temperatures will decrease the production of wine grapes in some areas by about 50% by the late 21st century.

Look, I don’t need to sugar coat this: climate change is bad. The earth is getting hotter, winters are getting colder, and storms are getting worse. But it’s not all bad! Regions around the world are producing wine that we never thought possible even twenty years ago. So while you’re lamenting our planet burning while global leaders stand idly by, find some solace in a new varietal from an unexpected region. You might find a new favorite! I’d also encourage you to open a bottle of something traditional, enjoy it in its current form, and invite your friends over to have a glass and discuss ways to motivate corporations and lawmakers to move quickly to save our planet (and wine).

Lynn Phelps Finch
Previous part-owner of Joseph Phelps Vineyards

This interview has been edited for clarity and truncated for the newsletter.

This week, we’re talking with Lynn Phelps Finch, the youngest daughter of Joe Phelps who founded Joseph Phelps Vineyards in 1973, and previous part-owner of the winery.

Merobebe

Tell us a little bit about your involvement with Joseph Phelps Vineyards over the years.

Lynn Phelps Finch

I was about 11 when my father started the winery, so it has been a part of my life for decades. I didn't have much of a role for most of that time until I joined the board about 15 years ago. About 6 - 7 years after that, our father passed away and then I became an owner and that was it. I was really involved in a lot of aspects of the winery until last August when we passed the torch [and sold the winery] to LVMH.

Merobebe

What was it like to grow up around a winery?

Lynn Phelps Finch

I think one of the differences from my childhood is that we would have wine at dinner. My dad would pour a little bit for us and we were expected to taste it and comment on it. I didn't care much for it at all, but I just remember that it was part of our – not everyday dinner, but any time we were in the dining room which meant it was more of an important meal.

Merobebe

How was the transition into being on the board and involved with the winery, especially as a woman – even if this was your family’s winery?

Lynn Phelps Finch

I really had to learn a lot and learn a lot quickly, but I was not intimidated as a woman. I was more intimidated as a person who was behind in my knowledge of the industry. And so, in my particular situation, no. But my daughter is also in the wine business – she produces a sparkling wine brand of her own – and I think that she encounters that quite a bit. Women have come out in droves and it's been so wonderful. Our head winemaker is a woman and her assistant winemaker is a woman. It seems like every time I pick up a publication or get an my email about wine, there's women being celebrated and so I definitely think that's new. But I also feel like it still is a good old boys network. For example, if you don't own enough vineyard land to make your production, then you're at the mercy of the growers. I don't think that there are a lot of women in that part of the industry, and I think it's still mostly old families that have known each other for two or three generations and it’s kind of a good old boys deal.

I think going on the board was more of a personal learning experience for me. I didn't really feel intimidated as a woman. However later on, once we became owners, I did encounter some of that. Sometimes people just wouldn't believe that I was an owner. And I mean, I don't know whether it's because I was a woman or because my hair was purple! I used to get a lot of that but I really do feel that the tide is turning and it's turning very quickly.

Merobebe

They’re like, “She's a woman with purple hair. There's no way she owns a winery!”

You mentioned earlier that LVMH acquired Joseph Phelps Vineyard, and a lot of other small wineries are being acquired by larger companies. Do you think this will help wineries and the wine industry long term? Do you have conflicting feelings about it?

Lynn Phelps Finch

Honestly, yes, we did. We did the unthinkable that, up until about two and a half years ago, we wouldn't have even entertained. But there were a lot of reasons why we came to think that it was the best thing that we could do, not only for our family but for the winery as well.

LVMH is a little different – I mean, they are huge. I think they're a little bit different in their approach to buying smaller entities compared to some other large brands. If we hadn't been able to sell to LVMH out of all of the other companies that were interested in us and that we talked to, I don’t think we would have sold. We were assured by looking at their acquisition history and how they had treated the companies that they had taken possession of. We knew that they would preserve our legacy. We knew that they didn't want to turn Insignia [the flagship wine] into a 300,000 case brand, because obviously then the quality wouldn't be there. We knew that they may do some things differently as time goes on. But we are really confident that they're going to preserve the legacy that my father set out to achieve.

But it does seem like at least 2 - 3 times a month, we see that somebody has bought a small winery and I don't think it's a good thing. Consolidation was one of the things that we were really worried about. Most of these companies and venture capital funds will buy a winery, and what they want to do is just squeeze every bit of equity out of it and then get rid of it. I think we've seen it over and over again with brands that were great 30 - 40 years ago, but the wine isn't any good anymore. So yes, I think consolidation is bad and I think it's bad for the Napa Valley. I don’t think there will be any wineries like Joseph Phelps in 10, 20 years because it's just too difficult. Consolidation was making it hard for even us to compete in things like glass or workers – and there are a lot of [even] smaller wineries out there that are not going to be able to compete.

Merobebe

I think we’re seeing that more in the news not just with wineries but agriculture in general. These smaller farms and producers don’t want to “sell out” but it’s hard not to if that’s the only way to survive.

Lynn Phelps Finch

And you don't want to see your business go up in smoke, right? Yeah.

Merobebe

Speaking of smoke, how did Joseph Phelps adjust to climate change? How do you think that wineries will need to change as fires and flooding increases?

Lynn Phelps Finch

I actually think that things are looking a little brighter on that front. The two fires that did us so much harm were in 2017 and 2020. They determined that the 2017 fires were caused by PG&E’s outdated equipment, and since then they’ve been updating their equipment, cutting trees, and also setting prescriptive fires. There's not much we can do about drought and climate change, but I think there is a lot we can do to prepare for these devastating wildfires. I think that they will get a handle on it eventually.

Drought and climate change is a different story. There's a ton going on right now with water rights – who can use water and who can't. Right now, I know we draw a certain amount of water from the Napa River, but I think they’re going to stop allowing agricultural draw from the river. We have a couple of wells and one went dry after they had been producing for years and years. It’s really a challenge and that’s another reason we had on our pro-sell [to LVMH] because you just can’t do a whole lot about that.

Merobebe

What do you think the wine industry needs to do to better support and empower women?

Lynn Phelps Finch

I think there needs to be more exposure for women in the wine industry at an earlier level and we need to promote the growth of women more. We need to find ways to interest young women in wine and all of the different aspects of the industry, like growing, that are more male-dominated. A lot of it could just be that the tides have to start turning more than they have been.

I think about our head winemaker Ashley and her assistant winemaker, Kelly Fields. It’s like in their genes, and I like to think they’re that good because they are women.

Merobebe

It's a fact that there are more female supertasters than men, so you might be right!

Lynn Phelps Finch

I think women are different and look upon tasks or how they're going to accomplish their goals differently. It’s hard for me to explain how I feel about Ashley, but I think she's just a part of Insignia. She's been with us for 20 years and made Insignia for 15 years on her own and there's never been a score lower than 92!

So to try and answer your question better, I think that we need to reach out to women and present opportunities. The more great, talented women are presented with opportunities in the industry, the more we can have them be a more integral and bigger part of it.

Read the full interview at our website here.

Get a wine-related movie or book pairing for your weekend.

Today’s pairing is Sour Grapes (2016), an award-winning crime documentary about Rudy Kurniawan, a wine collector who sold millions of dollars worth of fake wine.

Grab a bottle of Burgundy and dive into the world of the rare wine auction market and marvel as wine connoisseur after wine connoisseur confidently declares Rudy’s wines authentic…until the FBI uncovers his meticulous (fake) winemaking process.

Watch the trailer here.

Did you learn something new?

If you enjoyed what you read, please share it with your fellow wine-loving friends! After all, sharing wine & wine knowledge is the best kind of caring…

Next week, we’ll be talking to doctor-turned-winemaker Kerith Overstreet of Bruliam Wines and drinking about California’s Russian River Valley.

See you next Wednesday!

Cheers,

Megumi

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