Climate and Wine Quality: Wind

The effects of wind stress are largely on vine health and yield, via reduced disease incidence on the one hand, and closure of the leaf stomata and especially direct physical damage on the other. Dry winds may also reduce wine quality through increased evaporation, as explained above.

On the other hand, the daily alternating land and sea breezes of the summer months that occur with some regularity in coastal regions of the dry continents markedly benefit both vine physiological functioning and wine quality. They are especially important in Australia and on the west coast of the United States, and are doubly advantageous. Dry land winds at night and in the early morning reduce the risk of fungal diseases. Then mild, humid afternoon sea breezes reduce stresses on the vines and greatly improve day conditions for photosynthesis and ripening. The same applies on a reduced scale around inland lakes and rivers. See topography and terroir.