Following a long and successful career in high technology that culminated with him serving as CEO of the public specialty semiconductor company California Micro Devices for a decade, Robert Dickinson, trained as a physicist, founded Argos Analytics in 2011 to help clients understand and adapt to the impacts of climate change. While Argos has been involved in projects ranging from analyzing flooding risks for coastal communities to quantifying increasing health threats from heat waves, it is now primarily focused on working with winegrowers.
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Adaptation is Key
Adaptation will make the difference between success and failure! Some climate studies have predicted a catastrophe for the wine industry. In a 2014 paper in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Hannah et al famously stated. “Area suitable for viticulture [will] decrease 25% to 73% in major wine producing regions by 2050...”
With the right approach, though, the outlook is much more positive. As pointed out by van Leeuwen et al in a letter to the PNAS editor responding to the Hannah paper, “…Burgundy continues to produce great wines with Pinot noir since 2000, although [average] GST is already above the upper temperature limit… The same is true for Rheingau with Pinot gris and the Rhone Valley with Syrah. High quality viticulture is sustained in these regions despite increased temperatures and dry farming, because of both the evolution of consumer’s preferences and implementation of adaptive strategies by growers.”
There are many tools available to winegrowers to protect their vineyards from the impacts of climate change, including operational adjustments in existing vineyards, changes in vineyard architecture when redeveloping a vineyard and optimizing vineyard portfolios. Which combination is best for a particular vineyard depends on the specifics of the existing situation and the future trajectory of the climate where it is located.
Some winegrowers are ignoring climate change while others are making changes based on recent conditions, which is like driving on a winding mountain road looking in the rearview mirror. Farsighted winegrowers are working to anticipate future climatic conditions in their vineyards and to understand their implications, so they can be prepared to deal with them.
Argos provides both regional and vineyard level projections of future climatic conditions. The vineyard projections also provide valuable insight into how they will affect the specific grape varieties grown in those vineyards. Read more...
Argos also offers assistance is designing adaptation measures as well as simulation and experimental design to evaluate their effectiveness.
For more information, please email info@argosanalytics.com.
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