(Wines&Vines) - Wine aficionados gathered under overcast skies on the Coal Harbour waterfront this past Saturday as part of the Vancouver International Wine Festival to taste cool-climate wines from around the world: Argentina, Australia, Chile, New Zealand, Washington and, of course, British Columbia.

The showcase tipped cool-climate wines as underdogs just starting to gain respect, and hinted that the regions producing them could become the next hot spots as a changing climate shifts where industry feels it will get the best grape for its buck.

Claiming new territory

Climate change is the ostensible reason why B.C. wine pioneer Anthony von Mandl (owner of 44,000-case CedarCreek Estate Winery and 250,000-case Mission Hill Family Estate) has launched CheckMate Artisanal Winery in Oliver, B.C., as the newest venture of Von Mandl Family Estates.

“It has become too hot to make complex Chardonnays in some previously celebrated regions, where the grapes’ natural acidity is being crippled by heat,” reads the promotional material introducing the five wines CheckMate is selling as a boxed set for an average slightly above $100 (Canadian) per bottle.

Mission Hill, von Mandl’s flagship winery, leapt to international attention when it won the Avery Trophy in 1994 for its 1992 Grand Reserve Barrel Select Chardonnay (from the same vineyard that now supplies CheckMate). Now, according to Ingo Grady, director of wine education at Mission Hill, CheckMate aims to grasp California’s mantle as a Chardonnay producer.

While many vintners in California have looked to Oregon and Washington for properties to bolster their position, Grady said climate change could push the prime growing region for Chardonnay 800 miles north of the Golden State.

The new California?

The question of just how far a changing climate and warmer growing seasons will push viticultural boundaries came up at the recent Oregon Wine Symposium, where Greg Jones, a professor of environmental science and policy at Southern Oregon University, said change is possible—but that Oregon as a whole seems well-placed to withstand climate change.

Jones delivered a presentation about climate change alongside Benjamin Bois, a professor of viticulture and climatology attached to the Centre de Recherches de Climatologie at the Université de Bourgogne, who set the stage for the discussion of Oregon’s future with his own observations from Burgundy, well-known in its own right for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

Bois said that the growing season in Burgundy advanced by about two weeks during the latter half of the 20th century (harvest records for the region date back to the 14th century and have been analyzed by climatologists).

While vines face a diminished risk of spring frosts, weather at bloom tends to be wetter and berries tend to be larger, something Bois attributes to the greater availability of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Showing potential

However, good tannins and color in the grapes have made for long-lasting wines.

Bois said that this suggests that Pinot Noir is showing “good plasticity” in the face of climate change, but cautioned, “That doesn’t mean there’s not any problem with climate change.”

Powdery mildew, for example, may become a greater threat, and the composition of the wines may render them more prone to oxidation as time passes.