Most winds that sweep through the worldâs vineyards bring both positive and negative results for winegrowers, often depending on the time of the season in which they blow. Whatever happens, you often can taste âthe windâ in your glass.
Whether a gentle breeze or howling tempest, wind is generally an underappreciated part of a vineyardâs terroir. Unlike soil, sun and location, you canât see wind. Yet, winds are very important to the quality and quantity of the wine.
In the U.S., we seldom give names to winds, but Europeans and Asians have honored them with almost human characteristics.
Perhaps most famous, the Mistral powers down through the vineyards of the RhĂŽne Valley, then fans out into parts of Provence and Languedoc. The Sirocco is the fierce, often sand-filled wind that blows off the Sahara Desert and flies north through the island vineyards of the Mediterranean.
âThe old people say, âThe Mistral can destroy grapes, but overall, it saves grapes,ââ says Victor Coulon, whose family owns Domaine de Beaurenard in ChĂąteauneuf-du-Pape just outside of Avignon.
That duality can be observed in vineyards around the world. Winds can cause the most damage in spring, do the most good in the weeks before harvest and have mixed results during summer.
In the springtime, when tender shoots and buds can be killed by frost, air movement through the vines can ward off freezing for a few degrees. For one recent vintage, grape growers at Cloudy Bay and other Marlborough producers brought in a fleet of helicopters to hover over the vines in the cold, early dawn hours to circulate air.
In Argentina, the Zonda wind blows in from the Pacific Ocean and down over the Andes Mountains.
âWhen Zonda blows in Mendoza, it produces a quick increase of the temperature and drops the humidity to almost zero,â says Franco Bastias, chief agronomist for Domaine Bousquet. It helps to hold back freezing temperatures that creep north from Patagonia.

But spring winds can also do a lot of damage. On the Sicilian island of Pantelleria, winds from Africa during the late spring often influence crop size.
âPantelleria is only 38 nautical miles from Africa,â says Antonio Rallo, whose family owns Donnafugata. âBetween March and May, the wind can be insidious. The more intense, the less will be the quantity of the shoots whose flowers will grow into berries, and the fewer clusters of berries, the scarcer the harvest will be.â
The scenario flips in summer, when humidity in most vineyards rises. Rainstorms are common.
âWind and sun are natureâs antibiotics, and wind dries things out more quickly after a rain,â says Ed Boyce, co-owner/winemaker at Black Ankle Vineyards in Maryland. âDowny mildew, for instance, needs about six hours of wetness to establish itself, so a nice breeze after a storm can significantly reduce the incidence of disease.â
In ChĂąteauneuf-du-Pape, Coulon says that the strong Mistral âblows away the clouds, helping our region be so sunny. The vines love it.â
In Californiaâs Santa Lucia Highlands, cooling winds are as regular as clockwork. They begin around noon each day, from Monterey Bay and up the Salinas River Valley.
âTwo things are happening during berry ripening as a result of photosynthesis,â says Steve McIntyre, owner of McIntyre Vineyards and the Monterey Pacific vineyard management company. âThe first is accumulation of sugar. The higher and longer the temperature, the faster the sugar content rises in the berry. Everything elseâflavor, aroma and structural precursorsâis only time dependent, so higher temperatures have no impact on accumulation.
âThe wind slows the process of sugar accumulation, allowing more time for all of the other goodies to accumulate in the berry, [and is] one of the reasons our growing season is so long.â
In the Sta. Rita Hills of Santa Barbara County, Matt Dees deals with strong coastal winds up to 50 miles per hour in the vineyard from which he makes The Hilt wines.
âClusters are smaller,â says Dees. âSkins are thicker, and the resulting wines are defined by concentration of fruit, high acidity and a powerful tannic structure, producing some of our finer wines, but often in smaller quantities.â
The vineyards in the edges of Israelâs Negev Desert also need relief from the heat.
âThe westerly winds off the Mediterranean during summer serve to cool the vineyards near the end of the day,â says Eran Goldwasser, winemaker at Yatir Winery.
One of Californiaâs newest appellations, the Petaluma Gap, became an American Viticultural Area (AVA) in 2017. Itâs partly defined by its âwind gapâ that channels cold air from the Pacific Ocean into the interior of Sonoma and Marin counties.
âWind dries things out from the cooling fog, and we need that window of time,â says Ria DâAversa, farming manager for McEvoy Ranch. Itâs especially important to an organic operation like McEvoy, where synthetic sprays canât be used to kill fungus.
Winegrowers on the East Coast worry about another type of harvest wind: hurricanes that sweep up the Eastern seaboard.
Anthony Vietri, owner/winemaker at Va La Vineyards in Pennsylvania, has made wine through a few hurricanes, but one that struck just before harvest sticks out in his mind.
âThat one knocked down an entire end row loaded with Pinot Grigio,â says Vietri. âWe had to reset new posts with the trellises still burdened down by vines full of fruit. Not fun.â