So…how are you celebrating World Water Day today?

What’s that you say…you actually went to work??!?

I get it; it’s been a fairly obscure holiday. But back in 1994, the United Nations designated every March 22 henceforth as UN-Water Day. It makes sense, since 71 percent of our planet is covered with the stuff, and more than half of us (1.5 billion) work in some water-related job. It makes even more sense that this year’s theme is water and jobs, focusing on how enough quality water can change lives and even transform societies. Just ask Lady Gaga, Pharrell Williams and Beyoncé, celebrities promoting the cause.

And we know what water means to our favorite vines. Wine guru Jancis Robinson has written that in arid regions, grapevines reach as deep as 20 feet underground to quench their thirst. Water carries nutrients from the soil up into the plants, which need 20 to 30 inches of water (from rain or irrigation) every year. We’re talking about some 19 million acres of vines across the globe, giving us 70 million tons of fruit, about 70 percent of which end up in our wineglasses.

Is that wine-geeky enough for you? Here’s a little more: During photosynthesis, water molecules combine with carbon to make glucose, the main source of energy for the vine. It gets complicated, though. How well water performs its many tasks can be impacted by evaporation, climate, soil type, and a slew of other factors. Not enough water and the vines undergo “water stress” – essentially, the grapes stop ripening. Give them too much, especially at harvest time, and the grapes get waterlogged; they swell up, their sugar is diluted, and the outcome is a crop of bland, watery-tasting grapes (and wine). I saw this dynamic firsthand years ago, when I used to grow my grandma’s black raspberries – those vines loved a good downpour in the spring, but come June and early July, they needed bright, hot sunshine to give us the sweet berries we waited for every year.

An over-abundance of water can bring other challenges, too – bacteria, mold, fungi. Good drainage is essential. And all of these water-related factors can vary between regions, vineyards, even individual vines.

The wine in your glass is 80 to 90 percent water, almost all of it from grapes themselves. So when we raise a glass to celebrate Easter this weekend, maybe we can pause to appreciate the delicate balance achieved by those smart, long-experienced winegrowers all over creation. They use their water well, don’t they?

But if you run out of vino, don’t try changing jugs of water into wine. That job is taken.

Cheers, everyone! And if you want to keep reading about wine and spirits every week, please click on the “Follow” button in the bottom righthand corner of your screen and BigSexyReds will appear in your mailbox.

Wine Lingo of the Day:  Coulure = In English, it translates to “shatter.” Coulure happens when the tiny flowers on the vine fail to develop into healthy berries, and is often brought on by cold, rainy weather, especially in spring.

Happy sipping,

Mary

[Photos courtesy of cold bologna and whity at Flickr.com.]