Biodiversity Foundation Project: Evaluating the impact of climate change on wine production in the Rioja DOCa

The DOCa Rioja is a wine-growing region (63,593 hectares and 315 million liters of wine) distributed between La Rioja, Álava, and Navarra. It benefits from the confluence of two opposing climates, the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, which provide mild temperatures and annual rainfall of just over 400 l/m (12 mi), ideal conditions for vine development. The current climate change scenario, with rising temperatures and a more uneven distribution of rainfall, is a potential threat, altering phenological and ripening development and the incidence of pests and diseases, among other factors. To date, no rigorous study has been made of climate change in recent decades in the DOCa Rioja, nor has the sector's perception of it been evaluated, nor has the technical and socioeconomic impact of climate change on viticulture, nor have possible adaptation and mitigation strategies been assessed.

The project has studied the evolution of the climate and phenology of vine cultivation in the Denominación de Origen Calificada Rioja (DOCa Rioja) during the period 1950-2014, providing data at the spatial level (66 maps) and by municipality (12 tables) on the evolution of 14 climatic variables and indices. A sociological diagnosis has also been made of the perception of climate change (CC) in the wine sector of the DOCa Rioja, as well as of the knowledge and implementation of adaptation practices. The study of climate evolution has shown an average increase in the average temperature (0.9–1.2 °C) in most of the DOCa Rioja, which has led to a shift in the climate classification of the vineyard according to the Winkler index towards warmer classes. This translates into a general advancement of budding, flowering, and veraison dates in Tempranillo and Garnacha.