Yes, I’m sorry to report but due to the current rate of global warming, the Napa Valley will soon be a desert. You think I’m kidding, but the National Academy of Sciences has just done a whole new batch of computer modeling based on current rates of global warming, and it looks bad for California. Specifically, in the next couple of decades we are looking at significant and prolonged heat waves that will lay waste to the wine and dairy industries in California — not to mention significantly disrupt the tenuous water rights system in the state as snowpacks and runoff are reduced thirty to seventy percent.
What does this mean? Well, other than driving collectors to institute a more aggressive cellaring program, it puts environmentalists and grape growers (two groups that are often at loggerheads) into the same camp — not to mention wine lovers. If you want to be drinking the 2020 vintage of your favorite Central Coast Pinot Noir it’s time to start lobbying Congress to actually admit that global warming exists and do something about it. Signing the Kyoto accords would be a good start. Please. Do it for the wine.