The “new normal” of drought in Argentine wineries

With more than 600 wineries in charge of producing around 10 million hectoliters of wine per year, the province of Mendoza (west) has established itself as the main exponent of this drink in Argentina, a model that today faces a major challenge for its subsistence. : the drought.

Located in the arid South American diagonal, this region suffers from a structural scarcity of water that has worsened in the last ten years as a consequence of climate change, forcing wine producers to adapt to this “new normal” which, according to current projections, is here to stay.

“We have had low reserve levels (of water) for many years and that critical state has already returned to normality; so we are the ones who have to change and understand that we have to live with that situation”, assures EFE Juan Pablo Murgia, oenologist and technical manager of Grupo Avinea, a company specialized in the production of organic wine.

An even more arid desert

Rainfall is low in Mendoza (about 250 liters per square meter per year) and the province depends on snowmelt, which during the summer months descends through the Andes mountains to feed the river basins. The problem is precisely that every year it snows less.

“The glaciers are receding, the snow is scarce and the increase in temperature is generating a situation where the five main basins of our province present a state of drought between severe and extreme.”, Marcela Andino, doctor in Water Law and adviser to the General Department of Irrigation, the local water authority, told EFE.

The data from this body is enlightening: the Mendoza river, which supplies the provincial capital and most of the wineries, drained some 785 cubic hectometres of water during the 2021/2022 season, 56% of the usual volume, which meant the worst campaign of the last 50 years.

This reality transforms Mendoza’s hydrological drought into a “agronomic drought”, according to Andino, reducing the production of some crops due to the lower supply of water: “We are delivering in some basins almost 50% of the average water that we delivered in other times”, affirms the expert.

Irrigation technology

In this context, Mendoza wineries have promoted a “technification” of the type of irrigation, which was traditionally divided into two systems: canalized irrigation or “shift” and the pumping of the groundwater in depth (wells), variants that are equally affected by the scarcity of water.

In the case of the Avinea Group, most of its vineyards are supplied by deposits, with perforations that they manage “in the best possible way”; while applying theprecision viticulture” when making soil measurements and optimizing drip irrigation.

“Each of our vineyards is mapped and this mapping responds to a type of soil. It is not the same to irrigate a silt-clay soil, than to irrigate a sandy or stony soil; water retention, plant development and water needs are totally different”, Murgia points out.

This company, which has five vineyards in the province, also closely analyzes the “water state” of the plants, through the use of pressure chambers to know when it is convenient to water them.

“Technification is not only the specific administration of water and not only implies an improvement in precision and quality; it is also savings and knowledge (…). Really, not working in this way is going to become very complex”, points out the technical manager of the Avinea Group.

The initiatives of the wineries coexist with the infrastructure works promoted by the provincial government, which are changing their typology to adapt to this “new normal”.

“All the focus is no longer on the waterproofing of channels, but on the construction of reservoirs that allow more flexibility to be given to the water distribution and delivery system”, points out Andino, adding that “not everything depends on the state“and what is still needed”a lot of private financing and a lot of awareness of the irrigator”.

Need for adaptation

In the opinion of the director of the Avinea Group, “No doubt” that the only way to survive in the face of this prolonged drought is through the modernization of production processes, something more accessible to larger wineries.

“It is very probable that the most developed companies are going to be more technical and, therefore, perhaps the smallest producers are the ones that are going to cost them the most. That is where you have to look for all the tools for that improvement”, emphasizes Murgia.

All actions necessary to sustain the wine industry in Argentina, a country ranked as the seventh largest producer and tenth largest wine exporter in the world.

Source: EFE