I was so fortunate to receive a scholarship to travel to France to attend a week long intensive course, with about 30 other PhD students from all over the world to learn about sustainability and its contexts in farming, city planning, urban life, and natural ecosystems. Each day was filled with fascinating lectures from scientists from INRA (Institut national de la recherche agronomique), the Université de Bordeaux and its many different schools, IRSTEA (Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies pour l'environnement et l'agriculture), and others studying a range of interdisciplinary topics such as political science, atmospheric chemistry, hydrology, economics, toxicology, sociology and biodiversity.
We also traveled to a vineyard and winery where we learned about the farming of wine grapes, the history and cultural importance of "terroires" and "Appalachians" in the French wine industry, as well as the wine-making process. It was a fascinating experience, and the views on the bus ride there were just stunning, albeit mostly a vast monoculture of wine grapes.
The course was held in the small town of Cadillac, France, about an hour south of Bordeaux. I got to practice my French that I haven't used now for a few years, but haven't lost all of it! I even got to travel for a few days after the course with my mom who joined me in the Basque country with an old friend of mine who traveled up from her hometown of Elorrio in the Basque region in Spain.
One of my favorite lectures was by a scientist at INRA in Avignon who I sat with at dinner the previous night (we were fed three delicious meals a day, and in true French fashion, each meal had multiple courses and took about 2 hours). He spoke about the effects of climate change on viticulture. Growing wine grapes in the historically important regions in the south of France has become more difficult, as our climate is changing. This year has been unfortunately typical, with high levels of rain and overcast days, and not enough sunshine and warm temperatures. These are not ideal conditions for growing wine grapes. More northern regions of France and Europe are now better suited to growing this crop than they ever have been before. However, the regulation of the wine industry in France makes it so that you cannot call a particular wine a Bordeaux or a Sauterne or a Champagne unless it was grown in that particular region of the country, under particular conditions that are very well regulated and very hard to change apparently. And the consumers want their Bordeaux or Sauterne or Champagne--not something else they're not familiar with.
It is a fascinating issue that reminds me of the coffee dilemma in Latin America, where many of the coffee-growing regions are shifting as temperatures climb, making coffee farming more difficult at lower elevations. These are also areas where coffee is part of the cultural heritage and a huge part of the economy. Many of us do not yet realize the implications of climate change for growing food--and it is already occurring in these places.
Quaint little town of Cadillac--complete with historic chateau from the 14th century that Louis XIV stayed in.
Wine tasting in Cadillac--the Sauterne, a sweet white wine, is the specialty of this area. It tasted like drinking pure honey to me.
Vineyard tour at Clos Haut Peyraguey with the viticulteur and wine agronomy expert from Universite de Bordeaux
Wine grape flowers are very small and green, and hermaphroditic wind-pollinated. The plants are affected by nematodes, and downy and powdery mildew, just like watermelon. Organic (or "Bio" as they call it in France) viticulture is becoming more popular as consumers demand for it rises, but is still only a small sector (~10% they estimated on our tour). It is very challenging to grow these plants without the fungicides to kill the diseases mentioned above. Some of the chemicals approved by the organic farming regulations are quite controversial--such as copper--which is a heavy metal that persists in the environment.
Tasting the Sauterne from different years--good years are the drier, warmer years, which there have been less of in recent years.
The grape plants typically last about 30-40 years before being replaced, but can live up to 100 yrs old.
The whole group got to take a tour of the city of Bordeaux on Thurs evening. There were students from Africa, Asia, Europe, N and S America and Australia--such an interesting group!!