Merano wine festival, climate change and underwater wines

I had never been to the Merano wine festival before so in my mind it was made up of what I had been told over the years by the many people and wineries that attended it. Merano is not an easy to reach destination and also the period of the year doesn’t help, close to Christmas however, I was very pleased when I was invited. It was probably the one wine fair I had yet to attend. The only thing I knew about the Merano Wine Festival was that wineries could only attend if invited; they couldn’t buy a stall or table as they would at other wine fair. With that in mind, I went with an open mind, ready to make the most of it.

I knew Merano, I had been before, the town is famous for its thermal baths and the Christmas market, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed.

I landed in Verona and on the way to Merano, I couldn’t help but notice the absence of snow on the mountains, hence climate change on the post title. The lack of snow was already evident from the plane when crossing the alps. Despite being middle of November the sun reflected off barren mountaintops, only weeks before the start of ski season, and the weather was unusually warm. Rising temperatures that are placing increasing pressure on vine growers.

While tasting wines at one winery, the owner said that the grapes of one of their wines were grown in the highest vineyards in the area. He explained that, until a few years ago, those elevations were considered too high for grape growing, but now they’ve become ideal. However, as you can imagine, the higher the altitude, the rockier and less fertile the soil becomes, making it increasingly difficult to grow anything, let alone grapes. Every winery I spoke with was aware of climate change and had implemented countermeasures, but it was clear that it wasn’t enough.

Climate change is a challenge not only for wineries but for all of us. I also believe that being “sustainable” is no longer sufficient; we’ve moved beyond that point. What’s needed now is a bold, comprehensive new approach.

The next day, I attended the fair and, for the first time in a long while, I tasted from start to finish, from breakfast to dinner. By the end, my thumb and pointer finger were stained so deeply with red wine that even soap couldn’t remove it, it took several days to fade completely.

The fair took place in a stunning palazzo, with wineries spread across multiple floors and several rooms. The grouping of the wineries didn’t always seem logical, but I eventually managed to find the ones I was looking for.

While looking for wineries and wines, I came across a winery from a region I was interested in that also had an underwater wine on the table. I tasted their other wines first and lastly the underwater wine, it was their top of the range wine. I was disappointed. I had already written about underwater wines in 2020, in a post titled “Has making wine for some winemaker gone beyond producing good wine” where I discussed the effects of underwater aging. My initial impressions were confirmed during the tasting, the wine had already passed its best. I asked the winemaker what the rationale for spending so much money on this process was if by the time the wine was returned to the winery the wine had already passed its best, and the answer I received was “it was due to pass its best anyway”.

Within the festival there was a section or at least a few tables dedicated to underwater wines. On the first table there was a producer from Emilia Romagna, so I decided to taste their wines and to my surprise, the wines were actually good. The white wine was made with Albana, and if I remember correctly, the red with Sangiovese. Both wines still had all the characteristics of the grape, still fresh and were pleasant to drink. At the next table there were several underwater aged wines but this time it wasn’t the producers standing behind the table, it was the company responsible for ageing the wines underwater. Each producer sends their wines to the company and they do the rest. I tasted several wines and, unfortunately, they had all passed their best. I asked the person behind the table the cost to age wine underwater and she told the cost varied between 40 and 150 euro per bottle. I was a bit shocked by this, I can't understand the point of spending so much when the outcome is not great, not even good.

Underwater ageing speeds up the ageing process, so, logically, I see its use for wines that requires years of bottle ageing before being ready to be drunk. Beyond that, I can't see any rationale. Still, even in this case, a cost/benefits analysis needs to be done given the considerable cost of ageing wines underwater.

As per the winery from Emilia Romagna, their wines were good but I asked myself, I never managed to ask the question, whether the wine maker knew his grapes better than the others and managed to bring them back before it was too late or simply, the grapes chosen were better suited for underwater ageing.

After two days of tasting, it was time for me to return to Leeds. I thoroughly enjoyed the festival and discovered several new wineries that I hope we can start importing soon. If I’m invited again, I’ll definitely attend Merano next year.