What Makes High Altitude Wines Unique & Where to Find Them

Ep 109

What makes wine from high altitude mountain vineyards taste so unique? How does elevation, sunlight, and dramatic temperature swings turn an ordinary grape into an amazing bottle of wine?

I was inspired by a recent wine tasting that Mr. Cork & Fizz and I hosted with some friends. We hosted a wine tasting 40 floors up at a high rise in Seattle and the goal was for our friends to try and find wines that were made with grapes grown at higher altitudes. And what was really interesting was that everybody loved almost all of the wines and this does not always happen. Interestingly, there was somewhere there that is not usually a big fan of red wine but she loved all of the higher altitude red wines!

This got me thinking, what is it about these wines that makes them different from wines that she’s possibly had before? So, today we are diving into how altitude impacts grape growing and winemaking as well as the 4 key elements that affect grapes at higher elevations. And I’ll share fun facts such as where you’ll find the world's highest vineyard (and it’s not where you might expect it to be). 

So, if you are ready to take your wine to new heights, learn which grapes and regions excel at high altitudes, and how elements like thick grape skins and diurnal shifts affect the taste of wines, then this episode is for you!

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Episode Highlights:

• Do high altitudes always produce better wine?

• Where high elevation works best for wine

• Defining high altitude vineyards

• Where is the highest vineyard in the world

• 4 elements of high altitude vineyards

• Major challenges of high altitude vineyards

• Effects of high altitude on wine production

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Transcript

0:09

Interested in learning about wine, but not sure where to start? You're in the right place. Welcome to the Cork and Fizz Guide to Wine podcast. I'm your host, Haley Bullman, and I'm so glad you're here. I'm a wine enthusiast turned wine educator and founder of the Seattle based wine tasting business Cork and Fizz. It is my goal to build your confidence in wine by making it approachable and lots of fun. You can expect to learn everything from how to describe your favorite wine to what to pair with dinner tonight and so much more. Whether you're a casual wine sipper or a total cork dork like myself, this podcast is for you. So grab yourself a glass and let's dive in. Hello, and welcome back to the Cork and Fizz Guide to Wine podcast. Today's episode was actually inspired by a recent wine tasting that I did with friends. The long story short of it, is that my in laws recently moved from Bainbridge Island to a high rise in Downtown Seattle. And so my husband and I came up with the idea of doing a wine tasting in their building, 40 floors up, and we called it high altitude wines in a high rise. And we basically just encouraged friends to try to find wines that were made with grapes grown at higher altitudes. And what was really interesting was that everybody loved almost all of the wines and this does not always happen. And even more interestingly, there was a newer friend to the wine club who hadn't had a lot of red wine before. She wasn't a huge fan of it usually, but she loved all the higher altitude reds. So that got me thinking, what is it about these wines that makes them different from wines that she's possibly had before? So with that said, I did some research into what makes high altitude wines taste different and potentially better, maybe you'll find out later, than their counterparts at lower altitudes. Also quick heads up as we jump into this episode, I am going to use high elevation and high altitude pretty interchangeably. I looked it up online. It said it was pretty much the same thing. So I hope you'll accept that I use both elevation and altitude pretty much as meaning the same thing. Okay. So let's dive into it first, just by diving into the fact. And I'm just going to say this straight out. High elevation doesn't automatically mean better wine. So some of the top wines in the world come from very low altitude vineyards. And a specific example of this is the Left Bank Of Bordeaux. If those grapes were grown at higher altitudes, and again, Bordeaux is a region in France known for making incredible, long lasting, age worthy, complex red wines from Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. If those grapes were grown at any higher altitudes, it would be too cool to ripen them. And then if you look further north on France's Atlantic Coast, you have the vineyards in Nantes, which make high acid, light bodied, perfect oyster pairing Muscadet. And those vineyards rarely exceed a 50 feet, about 45 meters, in elevation. So again, you can make super great high quality wine at lower altitudes, just being at a higher altitude or higher elevation does not mean that it's going to be a better wine. So let's take a look at where high elevation does best to understand that it results in better wine than grapes grown at lower altitudes. So here are some examples of the some high elevation vineyards. So starting out in Europe, you have the Northwest Italy, the Aosta Valley, a neighboring Alpine region. And in this area, they get up to 3,900 feet or about 1,200 meters in altitude. If they went any higher, there would be year round snow that would make wine making impossible. So even in this area where they are making high altitude wines or essentially growing grapes at high altitudes, they have an upper limit. But if you go to an area closer to the tropics with a warmer climate, let's say South America and especially in Northern South America, right, because that means we're getting closer to the Equator, We have regions like Salta, Argentina and Elqui Valley, Chile, and these vineyards can be above 6,500 feet or 2,000 meters with peaks above 9,800 feet or 3,000 meters. So in this case, that altitude helps moderate the climate. It is a warmer, more tropical area, so they want to get up higher. They want to be in cooler areas versus in Northwest Italy, you get too high and you get snow. Right? It's doing the same thing. The higher you get, the cooler climate that you have, but it just depends where you started at. So, essentially, the conclusion is that the quality of high altitude wines depends on the location and climate that they come from. Along, and this is important too, along with the dedication of the grape growing and winemaking teams. You will find out I have quoted many winemakers in this podcast because I think it is really important to note that not only is it, like, cool that these places are, like, you know, these grapes are growing at higher altitudes, you have a cooler climate. It's still hard. So they need dedication from their grape growing teams and the winemaking teams. Just a quick reminder, you are not on my mailing list yet. What are you waiting for? I would love for you to join. When you do, you'll get a free shopping guide that has 15 of my favorite wines under $15. Head to corkandfizz.com, scroll down to the bottom, and there'll be a little section where you can join the mailing list. I send out a weekly newsletter filled with wine tips, recommendations, special offers, and so much more. Now let's get back to the show. Now, if we're thinking about defining high altitude vineyards, like what are we talking about when we're talking about this? And honestly, I think it depends on the region. When I was doing research for this, I found, you know, examples of people talking about high altitude anywhere from like, I don't know, 500, eight hundred feet and above. I do think consensus for the most part does bring it up a little higher, and we'd say anything above, like, a thousand feet or 300 meters above sea level can experience the benefits and the challenges that come with any high altitude vineyard, situation. Now, fun fact, there are actually some AVAs in California that define their AVA. Now remember, AVA is American Viticultural Area, and it's basically a definition of, like, wines from this area produce a certain style. Like you can expect this region to produce this kind of wine, and there's a similarity across this region. And so there are some AVAs in California that define the AVA by altitude of the vineyards, or at least have it as a defining factor. One example of this is Fort Ross Seaview AVA, and this is where the vineyards must be between nine twenty to 1,800 feet or 280 to 550 meters above sea level. This allows the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay to get enough sunlight to ripen in the cooler climate. So what's interesting here is even though they are going higher up, which could mean a cooler climate, it does mean more sunlight. And we'll talk more about that in a little bit about the factors that make up a high altitude vineyard. Now without this elevation, the Pinot Noir and the Chardonnay wouldn't have the expected qualities for the region, and thus, they had to make the altitude part of the AVA requirement. Mendocino Ridge AVA, also in California, also has a similar requirement. Vineyards must be above 1,200 feet or 365 meters above sea level. In this area, they're making really distinctive Zinfandel. And again, they have that requirement because if you made Zinfandel right in this same area but at a lower elevation, it would not have the same qualities. Now if you're anything like me, you might be asking, okay, Haley, this is cool and all, but, like, where's the highest vineyard in the world? And don't worry. You know, I did the research here. So the highest vineyard in the world is called Pure Land, and it's in Chanyaxing of Chuxhe County of Lhasa, Tibet. This vineyard sits at 11,691 feet above sea level, which is approximately 3,563 meters. The first vines were planted here in 02/2012, and today, the vineyard cultivates about 11 grape varieties. Before 02/2012, the highest vineyards were in Argentina at just over 10,200 feet. The grapes here in Pureland include Chardonnay, along with an indigenous grape that they use to make ice wine, a style of dessert wine called Biebing Hong, and they also have a red grape called Super High A that was specifically adapted for the region. Additionally, they cultivate grape varieties like Vidal, Muscat, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Petite Verdot. Though I am curious how the Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot do in terms of ripening, because these are not grapes you typically see at higher elevations. So now let's talk about what are the elements of high altitude vineyards? Like, what makes this wine different or similar, I guess? What makes it different from low altitude vineyards? And then what makes them similar across the board when you have a wine that was made from grapes grown at a high altitude. So we are going to talk about four main elements. The first of which is direct and concentrated sunlight. So for every 1,000 feet of increase in elevation, the UV rays intensify by 10 to 12%. So in this case, the grapes basically gotta make their own sunglasses or they're going to burn, or maybe we can think about it as like their own sunscreen in a way. So they do this by tanning and I'm doing air quotes, but obviously you can't see that as you're listening to this right now. But by tanning, that essentially means that they are growing thick, tough grape skins. And this leads to wines with vivid color, deeper pigmentation, and high tannins, at least in the red wines, of course. The winemaker, Thibault Dalmont, at Bodega Colome, works with grapes from the Altura Maxima vineyard that rises about 9,500 to 10,200 feet. This is in Argentina. And he says the fruit has to protect itself from this high radiation producing thicker and darker skins. So the wines have darker, deeper color, and great tannic structure. The extreme conditions produce high quality fruit and give us a great paradox, very dark and concentrated wine, but elegant, fresh, and harmonious at the same time. So you're getting a lot of that intensity without it being over concentrated, if that makes sense. Like, it's almost like it doesn't get too lush or too, like, flabby because it has that nice fresh and harmonious note to it, which we'll talk about where that comes from from another element, but it it is due to that high elevation. Now, the second element that you will find in high altitude vineyards is a dramatic temperature shift. This is called a diurnal shift where the temperature in the daytime is extremely different from the temperature in the nighttime. Basically the temperature drops at night. So this combined with a short growing season means you need grapes that ripen fairly quick. And this is why I am curious how Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot ripen in that vineyard in the high the highest vineyard in the world, but I did not look that up. So we're gonna have to look that up after this. Okay. That diurnal shift. So when the temperature drops, what does this mean? So first of all, it means a lower sugar production in the grapes. Less sugar in the grapes will end up being lower alcohol in the wine because there's less sugar for the yeast to eat and thus less alcohol is produced. This temperature shift also preserves acidity in the grapes, leading to higher acidity and fresher wines. Vice president of Ferrari in Trentino, Italy, Marcela Rulani, says that altitude is the most important factor because we need the right acidity for the long maturation of our wines, which makes sense as they make vivid sparkling wines in the Italian dolomites. They need that stark acidity to make their sparkling wines. Jared Dixon, the director and winemaker at Gilly Wines in New South Wales, Australia, credits cool nights for the long ripening periods that help to improve the fruit quality. The idea is essentially slow and steady wins the race. So they're not looking to ripen these grapes quickly. We want there to be time for them to develop. It's almost like they get it's like when you're training for a marathon, you're not just gonna like jump up and go try to run a marathon. You're going to take your time and then, you know, you're gonna have off days where you get to relax and recharge and rest up, and then you're gonna get back into it. And that's essentially what these grapevines are doing during the day. They're training, they're starting to ripen, and then at night, they're getting to relax a little bit and they're gonna start to develop all these complex flavors due to this slower ripening. I love producing this podcast for you every week, but here's the truth. It's not free. 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Another element of high altitude vineyards is exceptional drainage. Most of these high elevation vineyards, and we can also include steep inclines as well because typically at high elevation, you're gonna have some steep inclines. They are going to have rocky soil and this rocky soil drains water quickly from the vines and it forces the vines roots to grow deep looking for water and nutrients. So, whereas in lower altitude regions, you'll find roots that, you know, maybe are about three feet in length, you can have roots that are upwards of 40 feet long in some of the higher altitudes in Napa Valley. This is also true in Aosta Valley, Italy, where Elena Charrere, winemaker at Le Crete, says our soil composition allows our vines roots to go very deep, which allows them to survive even in high water stress conditions. And if you're thinking, great. Okay. Cool. What's so great about roots having to be really long? Right? Other than, like, I guess it's like really in the ground and they're not coming out. The benefit of this also means that you're going to have more concentrated grapes. The harder that the grapevine has to work typically means more flavor in your wine. The last element of a high altitude vineyard that we're gonna talk about is ventilation. And this one's pretty straightforward, pretty simple. Basically means that they have great airflow. You're gonna have more wind at higher elevations. Right? Once you when you're down at the bottom of mountain versus top of the mountain, if there's any wind, you definitely feel it at the top, and this great airflow helps reduce the chance of disease. The ventilation plus a lower humidity and the great drainage means that many high altitude vineyards can be grown organically as there is a lower risk of pests and fungus in the vineyards. Now these were kind of all like the positive elements, right, of a high altitude vineyard. There are also major challenges of high altitude vineyards, and I'm gonna share three of them with you. The first one so we talked about great drainage as, like, a really wonderful thing for the vineyard. The problem is that one of the major challenges of high altitude vineyards is irrigation or essentially getting water. There's a vineyard manager at Bodega Colome in Salta Argentina, Javier Grane, And he says that water is worth more than gold in the vineyard. So summers can be particularly hot in some of the world's mountainous wine making regions and rainfall can be incredibly minimal. And remember, again, these vineyards are high up, so they are getting direct sun. So it's basically like a desert climate at the top of these high elevation areas. Now the high elevation vineyards don't suffer from changing climate as much as some of the lower elevation sites do, but one main increasing challenge is lack of water. Our vineyard manager over at Bodega Colome, as I mentioned before, that said water is worth more than gold, he goes on to say that all of the water used for their vineyards and actually for the hotel is sourced from streams and from the snowmelt cascading down the mountains. So it's imperative that they manage it well. He says we have built a hydroelectric system that allows us to both collect this ultra pure water and generate electricity. In this way, we are self sustaining. So again, water is incredibly important in these high elevation vineyards. Then we have to talk about labor. Many of these high elevation vineyards also include steep inclines, both to get to the vineyard and sometimes that are just present in the vineyard itself. And that can mean manual labor is the only option when it comes to vineyard care and harvest. Plus, many of these regions are fairly rural, so labor itself can be fairly scarce. An extreme example of this is in Grace Vineyards in Shanxi, China. It's only about a two and a half hour train ride from Beijing, and yet they have limited vineyard workers available. Also, we're talking about in China. Right? This is like the most populated country or one of the most populated countries. Their youngest vineyard worker at Grace Vineyards is 62 years old. So again, labor can be incredibly hard to find for these high altitude vineyards, and they need manual labor because it's sometimes the only option. You can't use some of the mechanical inventions because of the steep inclines to get to the vineyard and throughout the vineyard. Last thing we're gonna talk about is the short growing season plus fairly unpredictable weather. So in general, high elevation vineyards tend to have grapes that are late budding. So the, like, life cycle of a grape in the winter, they are dormant. They're just, like, chilling. And then in the spring, they start to bud. They start to flower. And then in the summer, that's when they start to, you know, grow the fruit. And then finally in the fall, you harvest. And of course, this is Northern Hemisphere. In the, Southern Hemisphere, it's slightly different, right, because of the tilt of the axis, all that fun stuff. But just imagine that when season is beginning to start, that is when you see budding. That is when the flowers start to happen. And in high altitude vineyards, that tends to happen late. This is because of the spring frost and cooler temperatures that last later. The problem is that cooler temperatures tend to come up in the fall faster. So despite it being late budding, they need to ripen quickly because they need to ripen and harvest before the autumn frost. So due to the frost in the spring and the fall, the growing season is quite short. Then add to that diurnal shift, which slows down ripening. Some grapes simply won't ripen in these environments. And Cabernet Sauvignon is a great example of that, which is why Argentina is known for Malbec and not Cabernet Sauvignon, especially in their higher altitude areas because Malbec grows so well at these high altitudes and is much faster at ripening. These areas also have unpredictable climate, right? So we talked about frost on either end. There's also the risk of hail storms, low rainfall, temperature spikes, you know, there's more. But it can mean that the yield volume, so how much grapes they get every harvest, can fluctuate from harvest to harvest and from year to year. Now one thing, we've mostly been focusing on vineyards and growing of the grapes, but how does high elevation affect wine production? What if you have your production facility at a higher elevation? So to answer this question, I looked at Continental Divide winery in Colorado, and this is actually the highest winery in The US. They are at about 10,361 feet or 3,158 meters for those that are not in The US, essentially. The key element of high elevation in wine production is minimal oxygen exposure. The thin air helps preserve the original taste of grapes for a longer period of time. So it's the scarcity of oxygen that contributes to wine production at a higher elevation. So oxygen is necessary for fermentation. So less of it can make spontaneous fermentation more difficult. So the winemaker may have to encourage the yeast to start acting and start eating the sugar. However, oxygen is also responsible for degrading color and aroma of wine once it's ready to bottle. So less of it helps retain the flavor longer. Less oxygen during winemaking results in slower and gentler fermentation. And another piece that has nothing to do with the oxygen but is fun to know about, at the Continental Divide winery, they also use snow and the extreme temperatures of their alpine environment to control fermentation rather than mechanical and artificial cooling. Okay. Before we finish this up, I did think it would be fun just to do a little research into how about tasting wines at higher altitudes. Does it matter if you taste a wine on the ground versus up in a plane? So first, I started just by doing a simple Google search, and it's not exactly science, but I did find some notes from folks talking about their experience drinking wine at higher altitudes. And this was just the difference between sea level and, like, up in the mountains. And so one thing that they pointed out was that higher altitudes have decreased humidity. And we'll talk about this when we talk about, like, the extreme of, like, being in a plane too. Drier air means drier mucus membranes and thus less smell and taste compared to sea level. So a lot of these people said that sometimes the wine just didn't have as much flavor as it did at sea level. There's also an atmospheric pressure change that can result in champagne tasting flatter quicker. So it loses its bubbles once opened. Okay. So after this, this was basically like, you know, like a Reddit thread that I found all this. I'm like, oh, this is just like personal experience that's interesting. So then I did a little, deeper digging, and here's what I found. And again, keep this in mind, this is about like eating, drinking on a plane. So we're at about like 30,000 feet high. So according to BBC, our sense of taste decreases by about 30% when we're at higher altitudes. And again, this is because of the decreased humidity and the drier mucus membrane. So we literally just have less things to like smell things and right. Most taste comes from smell. Our nose does most of the work. So the senses we tend to lose most in flight are for sweet and salty flavors. Flying doesn't affect our ability to taste sour, bitter, or spicy foods. And the elusive fifth taste, umami, is actually enhanced when we are flying. So then that basically what they did with that was that they found out that wines end up tasting thin, tannic, and acidic. So right. Because the flying doesn't affect our ability to taste sour. So the acidity is still going to pop up. It doesn't affect our ability to taste bitter. So we're still going to get a lot of tannin. It does remove that sweetness. It removes a little bit of that fruitiness that we might taste. So with that said, you might wanna look for wines that are lush, savory, and lower in tannins and acidity. So some examples might be Grenache, Syrah, or Zinfandel, or potentially an oaky Chardonnay. Something that has just a lot of, like something that, like, on the ground, you might be like, oh, this is a little too lush and it's got a little more oomph than I usually like. Maybe that's what you should be drinking up in the skies. Alright. I hope you enjoyed this episode of the cork and fizz guide to wine podcast. I had a lot of fun doing the research. If you want more episodes like this where we're talking about, you know, factors in a vineyard and how they affect the wine, let me know. And if you have any specifics, send me requests. I'm always happy to do an episode on request of any of my listeners. If you love this episode as much as I did, please take a quick second to rate it, leave a review, and share it with another wine lover in your life. In next week's episode, I'll be sharing the first part of my interview with Eric Siegelbaum. Eric is an advanced sommelier with the Court of Master Sommeliers, Food and Wine Magazine twenty nineteen sommelier of the year, and 2020 wine enthusiast 40 under 40 tastemaker who has over thirty years of experience in the fine dining industry. Yes, this man knows what he's talking about. So in this episode, you'll discover how Eric went from working as a line cook as a teenager to a highly successful sommelier that he is today, his advice for folks interested in becoming sommeliers and how they should approach their careers. And my favorite part of the conversation, yes, I'm gonna be biased here, but we talked about the psychology behind how different generations approach wine. So basically answering the questions of like, why do baby boomers tend to stick to the same kind of wine all the time? Are millennials and gen z drinkers just not interested in wine? And why is that? And is the wine world in danger due to these younger generations being less interested? It was a really cool conversation, and I think you're going to love it. Eric is incredibly knowledgeable, not just on wine, but on the business and psychology of it. So it is a very special conversation. Thanks again for listening. And if you wanna learn more about wine, come follow me at cork and fizz on Instagram. And if you're interested in exploring new wines and joining an incredible community of wine lovers, be sure to sign up for my virtual tasting club, The Court Crew. Head to thecourtcrew.com to learn more and use code wine special to get your first two months for just $8 a month. Cheers.