Advancement of winegrape maturity continuing for winegrowing regions in Australia with variable evidence of compression of the harvest period

Abstract

Background and Aims Grapevine phenology is closely linked with growing season temperature. Rising temperature related to anthropogenic climate change has the potential to advance winegrape ripening. This study updated and validated previous research that considered changes to the timing of winegrape maturity and to the warming temperature of the growing season as well as added several new vineyard data sets. Length of the harvest period was assessed to determine if time between harvests of different cultivars has shortened. Methods and Results Vineyard records from 31 vineyard blocks in 13 Australian wine regions, in conjunction with gridded temperature data, were used to assess changes to ..