Andrew Wood on Climate Change and Viniculture

Lessons from the Grapevine

With the help of travel grant funding from Somerville, fourth year DPhil student Andrew Wood (2017, Biology) travelled to Bordeaux this summer to broaden his thinking on climate change and wine through first-hand experience.

People often ask me why I base my research in Oxford, a city more recognised for its consumption of wine than any contribution to its production. My answer is generally to ask whoever posed the question if they know that that the vast majority of wine drunk in the UK comes from a single species, Vitis vinifera. Moreover, the near-endless variations in colouration, growth habit, structure and pruning style mean that even experts have trouble telling varietals apart in the field. As such, I tell them, I might as well be based here in Oxford as Bordeaux or the Napa Valley. It’s the data that matters.

Such an attitude can ruffle feathers. Wine-making is often held to be more art than science, with much of a wine’s distinction coming from

Andrew Wood. Photo Jack Evans

notions of uniqueness. But the great strength of Oxford science is that we apply fundamental techniques to applied problems. That is the essence of my PhD, in which I am seeking to determine the patterns linking changes in weather to changes in the quality and flavour of grapes across multiple varieties.

This method is correct in theory, but it’s a poor scientist who refuses new data. It was with this thought in mind that last summer I applied to Somerville for a Travel Grant and Catherine Hughes Grant to attend TerClim2022, the international wine and climate change conference in Bordeaux. While there, I thought I might also take the opportunity

Barrel Hall Somerville was kind enough to recognise the value of supporting my research – and collegiate enough to make further collaboration possible.

to visit some vineyards and see firsthand how local vineyards are coping in the face of unpredictable weather conditions.

I was fortunate enough to be successful in both applications, and duly travelled to Bordeaux in July 2022.

TerClim was fantastic. After months of lockdown research, I was finally able to meet wine scientists from academia and industry, as well as fellow PhD students, and hear about their fascinating research. I learned about research projects across the world, from Australia to Germany, and from the tallest alpine mountains of Switzerland to the lowest valleys of Sonoma, California. The diversity of research was truly astounding, and led me to consider the placement of my own work within the rich tapestry of viticultural science.

The great virtue of being at Oxford is that we apply fundamental techniques to applied problems.

Once I left the city, I was also able to explore the vineyards that make the region so famous. Bordeaux’s 110,000 hectares of vines blanket the landscape, from rolling hills to endless plains. From St-Emillion in the East to Médoc in the West, the vines were omnipresent, covering the vista as far as the eye could see. Walking through endless vineyards, I was able to contextualise my data analysis and computer modelling work in the real world and at last see with my own eyes exactly the things I am attempting to capture.

Even better, I was able to have conversations with growers and learn more about the seemingly endless range of variables affecting their wine, from soil and storage strategies to pruning styles. These conversations served to deepen immeasurably my appreciation of the centuries-old culture that I am working within, as well as sparking many new ideas which I have brought back to Oxford with me.

Back home at Somerville, I was discussing my trip to Bordeaux one evening with a fellow member of the MSR. He listened as I told him about the amazing variety of factors informing the development of these wines. He’s a physicist and, after a moment’s thought, suggested that we might collaborate in using machine learning to accommodate these new data strands. We’re now collaborating together on this next phase of my research.

For me, this is the real beauty of Oxford: Somerville was kind enough to recognise the value of supporting my research – and collegiate enough to make further collaboration possible.