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Climates in wine regions - Bordeaux

The influence of climate on the variety, style and general character of wines from different wine producing regions provides a common topic of conversation for wine aficionados.  As new arrivals to the wine industry, we have found it interesting and instructive to compare the climate of the Denmark region with that of other well known regions both in Australia and overseas.  The process allows us to build a picture of what a relatively new wine region like Denmark can be expected to deliver in terms of fine wine.  Of course references to annual temperatures and rainfall represent just two of the three key physical variables that characterise a wine region – the third being geology, in particular soil type and geomorphology. We propose to discuss aspects relating to the role of geology on wine character in future issues of this newsletter.

Denmark produces wines that are recognised for their elegance and fine style – qualities of the best of French wines.  We have chosen therefore to compare in this, our first article on climate in wine regions, the temperature and rainfall regime in Denmark with that in the most famous of French wine regions – Bordeaux.

Average daily temperature and monthly rainfall data for the Bordeaux region has been sourced from the BBC weather site.  In order to express Denmark’s climate it has been necessary to rely on data from the Albany Airport’s weather station located some 50 km east of Denmark.  Unfortunately Denmark’s weather station ceased operation in the early 1970’s.  The data are sourced from the Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology site based on records from 1965 to 2009.

The key statistics compared are the average daily minimum and maximum temperatures and the average rainfall per month.  

The lowest average daily minimum temperature in Bordeaux is only 2 degrees C in February which is significantly lower than Denmark at 7.5 degrees C in July.  However, the highest daily minimum temperature is about 14 degrees C in both Bordeaux and Denmark.  Likewise, the highest average daily maximum temperature is similar in both regions at around 25 degrees C.   The following two charts illustrate the variation in daily average minimum and maximum temperatures per month in Denmark and Bordeaux.




 
In order to compare temperature patterns between the two wine growing areas the data has also been plotted on a seasonally adjusted basis where month 1 is January for Denmark and June for Bordeaux. The following two charts compare the average daily minimum and maximum temperatures per month between Denmark and Bordeaux.





There is also a similarity in rainfall patterns, with a maximum monthly rainfall of over 100 mm in both Denmark and Bordeaux.  However, in summer there is higher rainfall in Bordeaux (minimum monthly rainfall of 48 mm versus 23.3 mm in Denmark). The total precipitation is similar in both areas at nearly 1000 mm per annum.  The following chart compares the monthly average rainfall in the two regions on a seasonally adjusted basis.



Thus the overall average temperatures and precipitation for the Bordeaux and Denmark regions are generally within 10 to 15% of each other with the exception of the average daily minimum temperature which is significantly lower in Bordeaux at 7.6 degrees C compared with 10.5 C in Denmark.  Another difference is the overall relative humidity recorded, which is 20% higher in Bordeaux compared with Denmark.

The similarity of temperature and rainfall regimes in the Bordeaux and Denmark wine regions is striking.  This is somewhat surprising when taking note of Bordeaux’s latitude (between 45 degrees N and 47 degrees N) compared with that of Denmark (between 34.5 degrees S and 35.5 degrees S).

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