Climate and Wine Quality

Appears in
Oxford Companion to Wine

By Jancis Robinson

Published 2006

  • About

Climate of course influences both the quality and styles of wine that an area can produce best. At the extremes, a climate can be so unsuitable for grape-growing that to produce good wines regularly is impossible or, at best, uneconomic. Cooler climates are best suited to producing light, delicate wines, while hotter climates are most suitable for fortified wine production.

J.G. & R.E.S.

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  4. Huglin, P., and Schneider, C., 1998. Biologie et écologie de la vigne (2nd edn, Paris, 1998).
  5. Jones, G. V., Reid, R., and Vilks, A., ‘Climate, grapes, and wine: structure and suitability in a variable and changing climate’, in P. Dougherty (ed.), The Geography of Wine: Regions, Terroir, and Techniques (Springer, 2012), 109–33.