Decoding Tomorrow's Terroir
"By providing (...) a suitability score, smaller grape varieties that may have been overlooked are rated among the more famous international varieties to give the best possible utility to end users, the wine industry and grape growers"
In other media
For a deep dive into our foundational logic, and examples of what Grape Climate can be used for we recommend listening to the Sustainable Winegrowing podcast by the Vineyard Team.
Listen to the PodcastMethodology
Popularity
Predicts the regional footprint a variety might command. In practical terms, it indicates whether the climate is expected to support extensive cultivation of that variety. The popularity is biased to predict high popularity for international varieties. The percentile view shows how this score compares to all other model responses. For example, a score in the 99th percentile means it's in the top 1% of all predictions. In an average wine region, one might expect about 13 grape varieties to score above the 99th percentile and 65 to score above the 95th.
Suitability
The Suitability Score is designed to help growers find "specialist" varieties that may be less common but are perfectly suited for a specific climate, which is also useful for future climate scenarios. A high score indicates that your region's climate is very similar to where that grape is currently most popular in our dataset. This scaling reduces the score for major international varieties and highlights lesser-known ones. For example, if a climate is very similar to where a niche variety is almost exclusively grown, the suitability score will be very high. The percentile view shows that a given climate is among the best for a grape, not a directly measurable suitability.
"Our scaling reduces the noise of major international varieties to highlight the hidden gems of the vineyard."
Read the Foundation Thesis
Joel Z. Harms
Founder & Lead Developer
Growing up in Germany’s Baden-Württemberg and Canada’s Okanagan Valley, my passion for wine and the environment was sparked by these beautiful regions. This led me to study Bioresource Engineering at McGill University, where I earned my B.Eng. and M.Sc. and have contributed to research for over five years. My reserach aims to create local data-based solutions to allow the global wine industry to become more resilient and regenerative.
Grape Climate is one manifestation of that research—a data-driven bridge between rigorous engineering and the art of viticulture.