Climate of the Past
Climate of the Past
CP
Articles | Volume 20, issue 6
Articles | Volume 20, issue 6
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-1387-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-1387-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Articles | Volume 20, issue 6
Research article
 | Highlight paper
 | 
27 Jun 2024
Research article | Highlight paper |  | 27 Jun 2024

600 years of wine must quality and April to August temperatures in western Europe 1420–2019

Christian Pfister, Stefan Brönnimann, Andres Altwegg, Rudolf Brázdil, Laurent Litzenburger, Daniele Lorusso, and Thomas Pliemon

Data sets

Annual wine must quality data from Germany, Luxembourg, France and the Swiss Plateau for 1420 to 2019 Christian Pfister et al. https://doi.org/10.48620/317

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Co-editor-in-chief
This is a very interesting proxy development based on grape production. So far, grape harvest dates (ghd) are well-known proxies of past temperatures from April to July that can generate very accurate and fascinating time series (see Labbé et al. 2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-15-1485-2019). However, the analysis of wine must has not yet been considered, although the present manuscript shows that it is a highly potential climate proxy when other related information is missing. This study opens the door to exciting future studies
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Short summary
This bottle of Riesling from the traditional Bassermann Jordan winery in Deidesheim (Germany) is a relic of the premium wine harvested in 1811. It was named “Comet Wine” after the bright comet that year. The study shows that wine quality can be used to infer summer weather conditions over the past 600 years. After rainy summers with cold winds, wines turned sour, while long periods of high pressure led to excellent qualities. Since 1990, only good wines have been produced due to rapid warming.
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