Jane Parkinson shares 12 international wines made in coastal regions

Winemakers are jostling for coastal sites, thanks to their ideal climatic conditions. Jane Parkinson looks at some of these box-ticking regions around the world, and shares her notes on 12 wines that are bang-on for right now.

FROM DRAMATIC sweeping valleys such as the Douro and Mosel, to the mesmerising mountainous backdrops of the Pyrenees and Andes, seldom are wine regions ugly places. But there’s even more vinous earthly beauty to be had in the form of coastal vineyards, a trend on the up as people seek out more temperate, cooled-by-the-sea-breeze climates in the face of global warming, even if being close to the sea can have its drawbacks.

In Europe, of course, coastal vineyards are hardly a new phenomenon, although Madeira’s fortuitous location on a former important trade route between the Americas, Asia and Europe has more to thank for its wines’ fame and fortune than any flavour created by its proximity to the sea. Historically, these fortified wines improved so much under the hot conditions of long voyages to faraway lands that the same effect is recreated in the cellars of Madeiran houses today. By deliberately heating the cellars, the wines develop a complex, caramel, sometimes molasses-like richness that’s moreishly hedonistic.

Staying with the Atlantic, Spain’s Rías Baixas in Galicia makes wine that is crying out to be drunk with the freshest of seafood. Here, average rainfall is high (1800mm a year) while oceanic mists and fog are frequent. While this may sound like a headache from a grape-growing perspective, its flagship grape albariño actually loves these conditions as the cooling freshness hugely contributes to the wines’ crisp nature.

Over in the Mediterranean, Greece has far more to offer than mediocre holiday wines these days. The island of Santorini flies the Greek flag for white wines of pedigree, distinction and seaside freshness using its leading native grape assyrtiko. But it isn’t all plain sailing on this seemingly blissful island. The land is so dry that some climate scales register Santorini as a desert, while exposure to the elements is so acute that growers often train assyrtiko on bush vines to prevent destruction.

The Adriatic Sea is hugely important for the eastern section of Italy’s 7400km of coastline, even in the far north-east.

Here, Friuli’s terroir ranges from mountainous to coastal flatlands, the latter of which benefits from the breezes coming off the Gulf of Trieste. Maritime conditions also play their part in moderating the temperatures for this region’s native white varieties such as picolit and ribolla gialla.

Beneath the equator, New Zealand boasts double the coastline of Italy, with its largest and most famous wine region, Marlborough, sitting right on the north coast of the South Island. Flanked by the Pacific to the east and mountain ranges to the south and north, alluvial soils are found throughout its three

main subregions of Wairau, Southern Valleys and Awatere, while cool coastal conditions contribute to the long, slow ripening season and, in turn, the aromatic vibrancy and intensity of its wines. The region of Nelson next door may be far less famous, but its proximity to the coast and long, slow ripening season also plays to the strengths of aromatic grapes, including pinot noir. With Chile being 350km at its widest point, it is little surprise that a few years ago it introduced a ‘vitivinicultural zonification’. The three zones relate to longitude rather than latitude, the westernmost of them called Costa, such is the importance of the coast to the climate of many of the country's wine regions. Casablanca (a Costa zone) may have kicked off the country’s potential for crisp freshness some 20 years ago, but today there are so many more Costa valleys proving the mettle of Chile’s coastal wines, the most notable being San Antonio, Elquí, Limarí and Leyda. Famous for being home to the meeting point of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, South Africa’s Coastal Region covers a swathe of the country’s wine regions, from Darling in the north to Constantia in the south, all of which account for about half of South Africa’s area under vine. With nearly three-quarters of the earth’s surface covered by water, perhaps it is no surprise the coast is so significant to the wine industry at large. And with global warming taken into account when planting any new vineyard these days, this significance only looks set to grow.