Quit Fearmongering, San Francisco Chronicle, Climate Change Isn’t Coming for Cabernet
By
H. Sterling Burnett
May 5, 2026
The San Francisco Chronicle posted an article claiming that climate change is harming Cabernet production, specifically in California. This is false. The climate hasn’t appreciably changed for the worse in California amid modest warming. Wildfires are not outside of their historical norm and droughts haven’t become more frequent or severe. Data show fluctuations in Cabernet production across the decades, but no sustained downward trend correlating to global warming or carbon dioxide emissions. In fact, the highest production years for cabernet grape tonnage have all occurred during twenty-first century, supposedly the hottest years on record.
In the story, “Climate change is coming for Cabernet. Here’s how one Napa winery is getting ready,” staff writer, Jess Lander, writes:
In 2019, the greatest threat to California wine was climate change. It felt like a reckoning was coming, especially to Napa Valley, where the future of its crown jewel grape, Cabernet Sauvignon . . ..
Then, suddenly, winemakers stopped talking so much about climate change.
COVID-19 hit in 2020, forcing wineries to close to visitors and find new ways to reach customers. (Remember virtual tastings?) A few months later, more than 30 Napa Valley wineries were damaged or destroyed in devastating wildfires, and smoke from the disasters nearly wiped out an entire vintage. Starting in late 2022, California wine began to feel the effects of an unprecedented downturn in the wine industry. Ever since, California wineries have been in survival mode, battling a litany of challenges, including declining sales and tourism; a major grape oversupply; competition from alternative alcoholic beverages, like seltzers and ready-to-drink cocktails; tariffs and the loss of the Canadian export market; and growing anti-alcohol sentiment among Americans.
https://climaterealism.com/2026/05/quit-fearmongering-san-francisco-chronicle-climate-change-isnt-coming-for-cabernet/
