Climates in vineyards

Wine Blog
"Juicy Tales by Jo Diaz"

Vit 101: Understanding Macro, Micro, Meso, and Canopy Climates

All  words that are used in writing about a vineyard’s climate terroir. There are significant differences with each. If you don’t have the luxury of a viticulture class close, or you’re just too busy to attend a class, here’s a good primer.

Vit 101 brought some interesting concepts to me, including that there just aren’t the microclimates that we hear and read about all the time. Climatologists recognize that there are four levels of climate that exist in vineyards, which is dependent on the size of the area that’s involved in defining what’s what.

I’ve added the image to the right, because it’s explained as a microclimate on rock located in intertidal zone in Sunrise-on-Sea, South Africa, to demonstrate that microclimates exist in nature… period, not just within agriculture.

Macroclimate is what exists in the grand scheme of things, like the image above. It’s the overall climate of a specific region, like a heavy fog that blankets the Russian River Valley, for instance.