New research, published in Climate of the Past, has investigated the impact volcanic eruptions have had on viticulture due to climate cooling. Such colder temperatures result from the aerosols released in the eruption reflecting incoming solar radiation, as well as acting as condensation nuclei for cloud formation to further this process, therefore reducing the temperature of Earth's surface and triggering a negative feedback loop.
Professor Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist, a historian and paleoclimatologist at Stockholm University, and colleagues focused on quantitative historical records of wine production in the Luxembourg portion of the Moselle Valley covering 1444-1786 and compared this to proxies of climate change during the period.
The information on viticulture was derived from official records of tax issued on the number of barrels of wine produced, volcanic eruptions from stratospheric sulfur data obtained from Greenland and Antarctic ice cores, and climate reconstructions from dendrochronology. The latter is the study of the annual concentric growth rings of woody plants that can both age them and offer insights into temperature and precipitation through variations in ring width. As such, wider rings occur during years of cooler and wetter conditions, with the opposite true during droughts.
Significantly, the research team identified a clear pattern of reduced wine production in the years immediately following major volcanic eruptions, compared to elevated production from better harvests in warmer and drier years. Professor Ljungqvist and colleagues discovered a link between zero tax on wine production (and therefore inferred reduced harvest) in the first year after five major volcanic events in 1481, 1601, 1674, 1767 and 1784. Additionally, as eruption intensity increased, they found a 3-4 year lag in the response of wine production, highlighting the longer-term consequences of Earth's natural phenomena.
Comment: Note that this period spans much of the Little Ice Age: Little Ice Age triggered by unusually warm period, unprecedented cold struck within 20 years
More information: Fredrik Charpentier Ljungqvist et al, Strong volcanic-induced climatic shocks on historical Moselle wine production, Climate of the Past (2024). DOI: 10.5194/cp-2024-41
Journal information: Climate of the Past
This is a lie. This is not about production it is about sales!
Vinyards always retain good vintages for later sale. A catastrophic drop in production is not too abnormal and a stock would have had to be sold off in such times, smoothing the sales and keeping people paid to harvest etc.
I also notice a big double drop about 1520 ...