{"id":105777,"date":"2025-07-15T14:54:55","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T19:54:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=105777"},"modified":"2026-01-01T16:04:52","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T22:04:52","slug":"from-heat-waves-to-harvests-how-viennas-winemakers-grapple-with-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/from-heat-waves-to-harvests-how-viennas-winemakers-grapple-with-climate-change\/","title":{"rendered":"From heat waves to harvests: How Vienna\u2019s winemakers grapple with climate change"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Zhiyu Solstice Luo<\/strong>
\nMedill Reports<\/em><\/p>\n

VIENNA \u2014 Moni Wagner still remembered the snow reaching to her knees in February as a child in Vienna.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now, 61, sipping the wine she made in her own winery-cafe on Beethovengang on a reminiscently snowy day, she explained how the record-breaking summer heat in 2024 had caused irrigation issues, a change in grape variety and a resulting unpalatable aftertaste she actively tried to avoid in her own barrels.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPests. You know what I mean?\u201d Wagner said. \u201cThey\u2019ll get more, because they don\u2019t die in winter. That\u2019s what the problem is when it\u2019s getting warmer now.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSome tried the new grapes. They are more resistant against pests.\u201d Wagner added. \u201cFungi-resistant. It\u2019s new grapes, but we don\u2019t like the taste very much.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Wagner was facing a wager between quality and quantity. She was not alone in her dilemma.<\/span><\/p>\n

A grape goes through four stages before being made into wine: budburst, flowering, veraison and harvest. July 2023 is the third hottest anomaly on record from 1850 to 2023 in Vienna,<\/span> according to researchers at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU)<\/span><\/a>. Austrian Wine, the official agency that keeps track of wine production in Austria,<\/span> warns<\/span><\/a> of dwindling yield and worsening quality of grapes during heat waves, as both flowers and fruit are highly vulnerable to heat, wind and water stress.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is difficult news to hear for Vienna\u2019s avid wine lovers. In the 2022-23 fiscal year, wine consumption in Austria totaled more than 0.6 million gallons, around seven gallons per person, according to the <\/span>Austrian Wine Statistics Report in 2024<\/span><\/a>. And even for those who abstain from alcohol, the decline of local wineries represents the loss of a culture hundreds of years in the making. Though local wineries try to work with nature, the situation still presses for attention as Viennese wines represent not only a product, but also a traditional lifestyle.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Viennese wineries, or Heurigen (meaning the latest vintage), have been unique social arenas since the early 1700s. Originally known as Buschenschanken for the bush of evergreen boughs hanging on village lanes to signal its availability, these vineyards were small, family-owned and reliant on its soil, according to Robert Rotenberg, Vincent de Paul Professor of Anthropology at DePaul University. Going to a Heuriger meant spending time with family, tasting locally sourced wine and cuisine, and looking out at lush hills of grapevines in leisure. It was for the urban middle class. It was for the old and young. It was chic.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even the royals loved them. Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II proclaimed the right of winemakers to sell wine directly to the public in 1784, and the Habsburgs even had their own<\/span> winery<\/span><\/a>, which is still operating in the wine-growing area of Wagram and Gro\u00dfriedenthal, pumping out around 20,000 bottles of wine in 2020 alone, according to its website. In 2024, the city of Vienna boasted 664 registered wine types in 130 wineries scattered within city limits, according to <\/span>Austrian Wine<\/span><\/a>. For a city whose imperial apartments stand right in front of a Roman winery \u2014 whose ruins lie in the middle of Michaelerplatz, one of the busiest squares in the city \u2014 Vienna lives and breathes its wines with pride.<\/span><\/p>\n

The concerns for the decline in wine production are therefore not only culinary, but also urgently personal. Georg Geml, a food historian from Koch Kultur Museum in Vienna, said families used to go to a specific Heuriger over generations. He compared going to wineries to Christmas.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat is a special thing that you are waiting for, in a way,\u201d Geml said. \u201cThe atmosphere is always very cozy because it also seems a little bit familiar, like you\u2019re in the home of the vineyard owners.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This coziness was, however, under threat. In July 2022, driving through Wachau \u2014 one of the most famous wine producing regions in Austria \u2014 Geml was shocked to see dead vines covering the hills, parched by heat and drought.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough the vine has really long roots and taking the water from really deep down, but it was too dry even for them.\u201d Geml recalled, worried over the small Austrian wineries that, according to him, had cultivated their piece of land over decades, if not centuries.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe soil is important for the taste as well,\u201d Geml said, \u201cThat\u2019s a problem for them as well because they need to get new vineyards. No one will buy the old ones as vineyards, so they don\u2019t get the money for that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Geml\u2019s remarks illustrate a difficult turning point in the career of Austrian winemakers, where traditions urgently need innovations that come too slow, with too many sacrifices. Changing locations takes capital, learning how to cultivate new grape varieties takes patience and making new wines takes trial and error.<\/span><\/p>\n

And time is running out.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The reality of climate change<\/b><\/p>\n

In 2024, the Copernicus Climate Change Service<\/span> reported<\/span><\/a> a temperature breach of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above the pre-industrial average. It was the first year to go over this limit, which could potentially trigger multiple climate tipping points, beyond which, according to <\/span>findings by researchers<\/span><\/a> published in <\/span>Science Magazine<\/span><\/a>, changes in the climate system become self-perpetuating, leading to irreversible damages on nature and society at large.<\/span><\/p>\n

Herbert Formayer, a meteorologist at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna (BOKU), brought the climate emergency closer to home.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have now estimates that, compared to pre-industrial end of the 19th century, we have a warming of 3.0 degrees,\u201d Formayer said. \u201cSo it\u2019s more than double of the global mean warming.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The past four decades have contributed the most to the city\u2019s warming because of increased greenhouse gas emissions and reduced cloud cover in the summer months. Today, Vienna is an urban heat island that traps heat in its asphalt, glass and concrete. It can be up to 10 degrees Celsius hotter than the countryside,<\/span> according to urban researcher Kerstin Krellenberg from the University of Vienna<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Information from the Vienna Data Portal supports the researchers\u2019 findings. In the 1970s, the average number of days with a temperature above 86 degrees Fahrenheit was seven. In 2022, the number reached 31. In the meantime, the average number of days with a temperature below 32 degrees Fahrenheit has decreased from 18.7 in the 1970s to six in 2022. While the number fluctuates each year, the general trend of warming is clear.<\/span><\/p>\n