Sant Pere de Ribes (Spain) (AFP)

For more than a century, Joaquin Gay de Montella's family has been producing wine in Catalonia.

But driven by climate change, she made a big decision: to also harvest at the foot of the Pyrenees, at an altitude of nearly 1,200 meters.

August is not yet over, but the harvest is already on the grounds of the Torre del Veguer estate, in Sant Pere de Ribes, not far from the Mediterranean in northeastern Spain.

The heat is humid and a dozen farm workers hand-pick bunches of white grapes.

"Over the past ten years, the harvest has been brought forward by fifteen days," laments Joaquin Gay from Montella Estany, director of this "bodega" which makes organic wine.

A situation that in 2008 prompted the family to turn to the Pyrenees where they now have ten hectares in Bolvir, near the French border.

- Reproduction 'in vitro' -

In sixty years, the average temperature has increased by 1.3 degrees in Spain, a country with the largest vineyard in the world in terms of area (961,000 hectares) and third world producer, according to the International Organization of Vine and Wine (OIV) .

And the effects on the vineyard are obvious.

Harvest in the vineyards of the Torre del Veguer estate, August 25, 2021 in Sant Pere de Ribes, near Barcelona, ​​in Catalonia Josep LAGO AFP / Archives

"In the spring, the temperatures are higher, the precipitation lower. The grapes reach a higher degree of alcohol, the PH increases, the acidity drops, and it must therefore be quickly picked up so as not to have a content of excessive alcohol ", explains Fernando Zamora, professor of oenology at the University of Tarragona.

But "these grapes did not ripen properly," he adds.

At the head of Familia Torres, a wine company with more than 1,300 hectares in different countries, Miguel A. Torres began planting vines in 1998 in Tremp in the Pyrenean foothills, 160 km from the company's headquarters in Vilafranca. del Penedès.

"It seemed crazy to the farmers in the area. There were no vines at this height, they thought it would not ripen," recalls Xavier Admella, who manages the 127 hectares of Familia Torres in this locality.

The Torres vineyard, July 27, 2021 in Tremp, near Lleida, in the Pyrenean foothills Josep LAGO AFP / Archives

"Climate change has proved us right," he adds, as several farm workers set up nets to protect the vines from hail.

"On average, we lose one degree every 100 meters in altitude. In Tremp, we have almost ten degrees less," explains Miguel A. Torres, member of the fourth generation of winegrowers in this family.

"This allows us to have white grape varieties that retain good acidity, and in years when it was very hot, to balance the wines, by mixing them with others," he adds.

Another solution to adapt to climate change, the group, which sells its wines in 150 countries, has a laboratory where it resuscitates grape varieties that have practically disappeared and reproduces the most interesting + in vitro +.

A bunch of grapes from the Torres vineyard, July 27, 2021 in Tremp, near Lleida, in the Pyrenean foothills Josep LAGO AFP / Archives

One of these grape varieties, which reacts well at altitude, has already been planted in Tremp in the hope of producing a 100% altitude wine.

- Opportunity?

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But this struggle to adapt comes at a very high cost for producers.

"The future is complicated," admits Miguel A. Torres, recalling the sector's aid requests sent to both Madrid and Brussels.

For Joaquin Gay de Montella, the future of "viticulture will go through prospecting for high altitude areas for planting (vines) and looking for grape varieties that ripen later".

Grape varieties that have disappeared in in vitro culture in the laboratory of the Torres vineyard, July 27, 2021 in Vilafranca del Penedes, near Barcelona, ​​in Catalonia Josep LAGO AFP / Archives

But it is not to be excluded, according to him, that one day, certain regions of Spain will no longer be able to produce wine.

"It could happen. In (the region of) Penedès, maybe not, but in some areas, in the south" of Spain.

Fernando Zamora refuses him to consider such a bleak future despite the serious repercussions of climate change.

It "forces some vineyards to move, to learn to make wine, not as our grandparents did, but by looking for new techniques. And the wines are much better than a few years ago", assures- he does.

© 2021 AFP