WINE connoisseurs may soon be able to predict which years will produce the
best vintages, courtesy of Portuguese researchers who have pinpointed the
weather needed to grow outstanding grapes.
All wine growers know what weather to hope for: a cool winter so the vines
can “rest”, not too much rain so the grapes don’t get diseased and their juice
isn’t too dilute, enough sun to ripen the fruit, and no frosts before the
harvest. But it’s hard to predict the weather a week in advance, let alone a
year.
Now Maria Orgaz, a physicist from the University of Aveiro in…
