Bold red cabernet sauvignon has made the Napa region world famous, with some bottles retailing at hundreds of dollars. But increasingly severe heat waves are taking a toll on the grape variety.
Why now: In the face of climate change, wineries around the world are innovating. New technology is being installed to keep the grapes cool during heat spells.
What's next: A handful of wineries are going a step further. They're experimenting with new grapes, ripping out high-value cabernet vines to plant varieties from hotter climates.
Climate Solutions Week
How does climate change affect where and how we live? The energy used to operate buildings results in more than a fourth of global carbon dioxide pollution. And climate change threatens communities with risks like floods and wildfire. So NPR is dedicating a week to stories about climate change solutions for living and building on a hotter planet.
In California's Napa Valley, cabernet sauvignon is king.
The bold red wine has made the region world famous, with some bottles retailing at hundreds of dollars. But increasingly severe heat waves are taking a toll on the grape variety, especially in late summer during ripening. As temperatures keep rising, the wine industry is slowly confronting a future where Napa may not be the prime cabernet region it once was.
In the face of climate change, wineries around the world are innovating. New technology is being installed to keep the grapes cool during heat spells. A handful of wineries are going a step further. They're experimenting with new grapes, ripping out high-value cabernet vines to plant varieties from hotter climates.
The goal is to find heat-tolerant grapes that blend well with cabernet, potentially making up for the flavors that cabernet could lack when temperatures get even hotter. While many bottles labeled cabernet are already blended with other grapes in small amounts, winemakers may need more flexibility in the future.
"We know we have to adapt," says Avery Heelan, a winemaker at Larkmead Vineyards in Calistoga, Calif. "We can't just pretend that it's going to go away, because all we see is each year it's getting more and more extreme."
Still, blending with other grapes comes with risks. For a U.S. wine to be labeled cabernet, a bottle must contain 75% cabernet grapes or more. Any less, and it's considered a red blend. Blends typically don't command the same prices on store shelves as cabernet, especially since consumers are accustomed to picking U.S. wines by the name of the grape. Moving away from cabernet would be a major financial gamble for Napa's multibillion-dollar wine industry.
"It is a big shift," says Elisabeth Forrestel, an assistant professor of viticulture and enology at the University of California, Davis. "Without the market changing or demands changing, you can't convince someone to grow something that doesn't sell or doesn't garner the same price."
University of California, Davis research assistant Jacob Vito crushes cabernet sauvignon grapes from Napa Valley to analyze their chemical compounds. The lab is studying how heat is affecting the grapes.
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Charbono, anyone?
Some grapes growing at Larkmead Vineyards aren't ones that many American wine drinkers would recognize. Long rows of vines are labeled: touriga nacional, aglianico, charbono and tempranillo.
"There's not a huge market for a lot of these varieties," says Heelan, walking among the vines on a hot summer afternoon. "We're really choosing them not from popularity, but for their qualities."
Established more than a century ago, the winery is known for its bottles of cabernet sauvignon. These lesser-known grapes were planted only a few years ago, part of a research vineyard that took the place of cabernet vines.
"Which most people would probably think is a little crazy, considering it's 3 acres of perfect cabernet land," Heelan says. "But certainly with the climate and how dramatically it's changed over even the last 10 years, we really have to start adjusting."
Winemaker Avery Heelan is growing several rare grape varieties at Larkmead Vineyards in Napa Valley, in the hope that they'll blend well with cabernet grapes as temperatures get hotter.
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The vineyard is already at the hotter northern end of Napa Valley, but the extreme heat in recent years has been a wake-up call. A late-summer heat wave in 2022 hit temperatures just under 120 degrees at the vineyard, she says.
"When it gets that hot, the vines, they're done," she says. "They're going to go dormant, and when that happens, they're not ripening anymore."
In extreme heat, cabernet grapes can lose their rich color. They also dehydrate, wrinkling like raisins, which produces wines that are sweeter and more alcoholic. Heelan says the grapes that the vineyard is testing could provide an added boost of color or acidity to cabernet, helping balance out the wine when temperatures take their toll.
The experiment has its cost. In addition to the lost revenue from removing cabernet, grapevines take up to five years to produce their first crop, plus several more years for the wines to ferment. Heelan says only then will they start to see how the new grapes are performing. But the goal is to prepare the winery for the future, knowing that heat will likely get worse.
"Honestly, the more we experiment and learn about how to adapt, I think the wines are just getting better and better," she says.
In hotter temperatures, cabernet grapes lose their rich red color and produce sweeter, more alcoholic wines.
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Where cabernet is king
Farther south, Shafer Vineyards sits in the heart of Stags Leap, a Napa wine region that's known for high-end cabernets. Winemaker Elias Fernandez says the grapes benefit from a cool evening breeze that blows in from San Francisco Bay.
This summer, heat has already been a problem. July was the hottest July on record in California. Fernandez points to a grape cluster where small green grapes are nestled among larger purple ones.
"This is effects of the heat," he says. "It’s not maturing, so this is where you lose some fruit."
Winemaker Elias Fernandez is installing new technology at Shafer Vineyards in Napa Valley to combat heat waves.
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The damage isn't too widespread this year, unlike in 2022. But with summers getting more intense, Fernandez says the winery is looking at technology to help the cabernet vines. They're currently installing misters, which spray water into the air to cool the temperature.
"It's a constant mist," he says. "How many of you have been to a party where they have misters? Doesn't that feel good? Well, that's what the vines are feeling."
Still, using extra water is a challenge in drought-prone California, he says. Plus, the water droplets can concentrate the light on the grapes and burn them, so misters must be run until the sun sets to keep the droplets from collecting. But Fernandez says he's hoping the misting will keep the cabernet vines producing at the highest level.
"I think the first thing we'll be doing is mitigation, hoping to keep it as the true varietal of Napa Valley," he says. "That's what we're trying to do — is buy time and see what happens with this whole thing."
For now, he's not considering planting other grape varieties. With wines that are priced at $100 and up, cabernet is central to their business.
"For me, it's hard to think that people are just going to throw cabernet out the door and plant something else," he says. "I really do. It's the king of the wines of the world."
To keep producing high-quality cabernets, Napa Valley winemakers may need to blend them with other grapes to balance out the effects of heat. But wines labeled as blends, instead of cabernet, often sell at lower prices.
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Wine regions are shifting
Professor Elisabeth Forrestel is studying how Napa's wine regions are shifting with climate change.
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Elisabeth Forrestel is one person trying to understand the big swings in the temperature. In her lab at UC Davis, her research team is smashing Napa Valley grapes inside plastic bags. They'll be analyzed at the molecular level to see how they change during the summer.
Forrestel's lab is gathering wine grapes from Napa Valley throughout the growing season, along with detailed temperature data, to see how the most crucial compounds for wine are affected by heat. Studies show the average temperature during the last 45 days of the growing season in Napa — when grapes ripen— has already warmed almost 3 degrees Fahrenheit from 1958 to 2016. But it's the intense heat waves that do the most damage to molecules that produce a wine's color and aroma.
"When you have these extreme heat events, you can have a lot of impact on the development of that flavor profile," she says. "If it was just an average change, it would be a lot easier to manage."
Forrestel is working on updating a central guide for winemaking, known as the Winkler Index. Developed in the 1940s, it shows the ideal locations to grow different varieties of wine grapes, based on how much heat they receive. Napa Valley was originally indexed for cabernet sauvignon, but this could shift as the climate gets hotter.
With cabernet being the world's most widely grown wine grape, cabernet vines are resilient to different temperatures, Forrestel says. It's a question of whether Napa winemakers may need new strategies to keep it producing at such a high-quality level. Since grapevines last 50 years or more, winemakers are faced with making planting decisions today that will need to withstand a hotter future.
"Some of the paradigms in what you would plant need to shift," she says. "People need to have different approaches so there can be more resilience and you can have more options."
UC Davis research associate Martina Galeano prepares grape samples. Wine grapes need heat for ripening, but too much heat can break down some of the crucial compounds for wine flavor and color.
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Would you pay the same for a blend?
Blending cabernet with other red grapes could be one strategy. But since U.S. regulations require any bottle labeled cabernet to contain 75% cabernet, at some point wineries may be looking at changing their labels to say "red blend."
"We have a perception that a blend is not as high quality as getting that high-quality cabernet, and they're not on the same price point, so it is a big shift," Forrestel says.
The challenge is particular to U.S. winemakers, since many other countries label their wines by region, instead of grape. The famed red wines from Bordeaux in France are already a mix of six grapes, including cabernet, so winemakers have more flexibility. Winemakers there have also struggled with heat, so French authorities recently approved four more red-grape varieties for blending. Since the wines are labeled with Bordeaux, wine drinkers may not even notice the shift.
Wines in the U.S. are generally labeled by the grape variety, a system that was promoted when the domestic wine industry was growing in prominence decades ago. In an effort to compete with wines from Europe, some thought focusing on the grape variety would demystify wines for consumers and show the quality of American wines.
Now, that system may work against them. Cabernet sauvignon is the most popular red wine in the U.S., according to NielsenIQ. So Forrestel says consumers are also part of the solution by creating demand for wines that are better suited for a hotter climate.
"Be open," she says. "Because I think it's really easy to walk in and buy what you're used to. And also, trust what you like and not what you're told to like."
Copyright 2024 NPR
Actor Patrick Heusinger in "Paranormal Activity" at Chicago Shakespeare Theater.
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Topline:
Inspired by the found-footage style of the "Paranormal Activity" film franchise, the stage production takes place in a two-story house so the audience feels like they’re watching someone in their home.
How it got so scary: Director FelixBarrett told LAist that he and Tony Award-winning illusionist Chris Fisher worked on the illusions first. Later, they built around them so the effects are integrated into the set. “We knew that we wanted the illusions, the sort of haunting, to be so baked into the core of the piece,” Barrett said.
What to expect: The audience is pretty vocal due to all the jump scares and special effects, so the vibe is closer to a scary movie than a traditional play.
The audience: Barrett says his team’s approach appears to be attracting new and younger theatergoers. “I think we're getting a huge amount of audience who wouldn't normally go to a theater to see a play,” Barrett said. “My favorite thing is people saying, 'Oh, my gosh, I'm gonna go and see more plays,' because we've got them hooked from this one.”
How to see it: Paranormal Activity, A New Story Live on Stage is at the Ahmanson Theatre through Sunday.
For more ... listen to our interview with Barrett above.
A Trump administration official today signaled a potential rollback of the racial and ethnic categories approved for the 2030 census and other future federal government forms.
Why it matters: Supporters of those categories fear that any last-minute modifications to the U.S. government's standards for data about race and ethnicity could hurt the accuracy of census data and other future statistics used for redrawing voting districts, enforcing civil rights protections and guiding policymaking.
What are those changes?: Among other changes, new checkboxes for "Middle Eastern or North African" and "Hispanic or Latino" under a reformatted question that asks survey participants: "What is your race and/or ethnicity?" The revisions also require the federal government to stop automatically categorizing people who identify with Middle Eastern or North African groups as white.
A Trump administration official on Friday signaled a potential rollback of the racial and ethnic categories approved for the 2030 census and other future federal government forms.
Supporters of those categories fear that any last-minute modifications to the U.S. government's standards for data about race and ethnicity could hurt the accuracy of census data and other future statistics used for redrawing voting districts, enforcing civil rights protections and guiding policymaking.
Those standards were last revised in 2024 during the Biden administration, after Census Bureau research and public discussion.
A White House agency at the time approved, among other changes, new checkboxes for "Middle Eastern or North African" and "Hispanic or Latino" under a reformatted question that asks survey participants: "What is your race and/or ethnicity?" The revisions also require the federal government to stop automatically categorizing people who identify with Middle Eastern or North African groups as white.
But at a Friday meeting of the Council of Professional Associations on Federal Statistics in Washington, D.C., the chief statistician within the White House's Office of Management and Budget revealed that the Trump administration has started a new review of those standards and how the 2024 revisions were approved.
"We're still at the very beginning of a review. And this, again, is not prejudging any particular outcome. I think we just wanted to be able to take a look at the process and decide where we wanted to end up on a number of these questions," said Mark Calabria. "I've certainly heard a wide range of views within the administration. So it's just premature to say where we'll end up."
OMB's press office did not immediately respond to NPR's request for comment.
In September, OMB said those Biden-era revisions "continue to be in effect" when it announced a six-month extension to the 2029 deadline for federal agencies to follow the new standards when collecting data on race and ethnicity.
Calabria said the delay gave agencies more time to implement the changes "while we review."
The first Trump administration stalled the process for revising the racial and ethnic data standards in time for the 2020 census.
The "Project 2025" policy agenda released by The Heritage Foundation, the conservative, D.C.-based think tank, called for a Republican administration to "thoroughly review any changes" to census race and ethnicity questions because of "concerns among conservatives that the data under Biden Administration proposals could be skewed to bolster progressive political agendas."
Advocates of the changes, however, see the new categories and other revisions as long-needed updates to better reflect people's identities.
"At stake is a more accurate and deeper understanding of the communities that comprise our country," says Meeta Anand, senior director of census and data equity at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. "I am not concerned if it's reviewed in an honest attempt to understand what the process was. I am concerned if it's for a predetermined outcome that would be to ignore the entire process that was done in a very transparent manner."
Makenna Sievertson
covers the daily drumbeat of Southern California. She has a special place in her heart for eagles and other creatures that make this such a fascinating place to live.
Published December 5, 2025 5:41 PM
The roughly 550-pound male black bear has been hiding out under an Altadena home.
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A large black bear that was relocated earlier this year after being found under a house in Altadena is up to his old tricks again.
Why it matters: The bear, nicknamed Barry by the neighbors, was found last week under a different Altadena home, and wildlife officials are using a caramel- and cherry-scented lure to entice the roughly 550-pound male bear out of his hiding spot.
Why now: Cort Klopping, information specialist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, told LAist the bear seems to be spooked by increased activity around the home, including media crews outside and helicopters overhead.
A large black bear that was relocated earlier this year after being found under a house in Altadena is up to his old tricks again.
The bear, nicknamed Barry by the neighbors, was found last week under a different Altadena home, and wildlife officials are using a caramel- and cherry-scented lure to entice the roughly 550-pound male bear out of his hiding spot.
So far, they’ve been unsuccessful.
Cort Klopping, information specialist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, told LAist the bear seems to be spooked by increased activity around the home, including media crews outside and helicopters overhead.
“It seems as though in this case, this bear has found this poor guy's crawlspace as a comfortable, safe-seeming, warm enclosure for denning purposes,” he said.
He said the space is “somewhere for this bear to kind of hang its hat when it's relaxing.”
How the bear returned
Wildlife officials can tell it’s the same bear who was lured out from under an Altadena house after the Eaton Fire because of the tag number on his ear.
The bear was trapped and relocated about 10 miles away to the Angeles National Forest in January, but Klopping said he’s been back in the Altadena area for around five months.
The male bear after it was removed from under an Altadena home earlier this year.
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The bear spooked a SoCal Gas crew who stopped by for repairs after the Eaton Fire in January.
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The Department of Fish and Wildlife fitted the bear with a temporary GPS collar so officials could keep track of it. The collar came off a couple months later while the animal still was living in the forest.
The bear is believed to have been spotted around the home last Tuesday, Klopping said, and the owner reached out to wildlife officials a few days later for help.
“I’ve seen pictures of this bear, and I’m shocked to be under that house,” homeowner Ken Johnson told LAist media partner CBS LA.
Officials said they were hopeful the bear would move along on its own. They encouraged the homeowner to set up a camera on the crawlspace and line the area with ammonia soaked-rags or a motion-activated wildlife sprinkler system to deter the bear from returning, Klopping said.
“These are all actions that would not harm the bear, not harm people, but they would make it less comfortable for the bear to be there,” he said.
But the bear stayed put.
“Right now, it seems like it's stressed,” Klopping said. “It seems like it's scared, and therefore, it's not really wanting to leave the security of where it is at the moment.”
The hope ahead
A pair of wildlife officials stopped by the home Thursday to set up the sweet-smelling lure and camera so the department can keep an eye on the bear’s activity remotely.
Barry didn’t take the bait immediately, Klopping said, but officials are hopeful the animal will feel more comfortable leaving the crawlspace once activity around the home dies down a bit.
Klopping also is warning people in the area to secure access points on their property so the bear just doesn’t move in there next.
“If I were in that neighborhood, I would be doing everything in my power to make sure that my crawlspaces would not be accessible,” he said, including covering it with something stronger than the wire mesh the bear got through before.
Bears also are extremely food motivated, and Klopping said they can smell your leftover chicken in trash cans on the curb from 5 miles away.
He encouraged residents to be mindful of trash that could be an easy meal for wildlife, as well as pet food and hummingbird feeders, which Klopping said biologists have seen bears drink “like a soda.”
Cato Hernández
covers important issues that affect the everyday lives of Southern Californians.
Published December 5, 2025 2:56 PM
South Coast AQMD, the air quality regulator, is looking at changing the rules for industrial boilers like this.
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Topline:
A new climate advocacy group, SoCal Clean Manufacturing Coalition, has made a map of more than 1,800 gas-fueled industrial boilers across Southern California. They’re calling on air quality regulators to phase these out to stem pollution.
Why it matters: Boilers come in different sizes that generate hot water and steam, often using fossil fuels. Many of the boilers in question can be found inside places like Disneyland, major apartment communities, universities, hospitals and some schools.
The debate: The equipment has been shown to contribute to nitrogen oxide pollution, which is why South Coast AQMD moved to phase out smaller boilers last year. But gas industry representatives say changing these bigger ones could have severe consequences for the industries, like manufacturing, that rely on heat.
Read on … to see where hundreds of boilers are across the region.
There’s a new way you can track pollution in your neighborhood.
The SoCal Clean Manufacturing Coalition, a climate advocacy group, has released a map with the locations of more than 1,800 fossil fuel-burning industrial boilers across Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties. Many are at universities and hospitals, as well as some apartment complexes like the Park La Brea apartments in the Miracle Mile.
The map is part of an effort to push the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which regulates our air quality, to pass rules to require these large boilers to be phased out.
Why do these boilers matter?
Industrial boilers aren’t exactly the poster child of pollution, but they do play a role in Southern California. Boilers come in different sizes, and although there are electric types, many still burn fossil fuels to generate hot water, steam and, as a byproduct, nitrogen oxide.
South Coast AQMD says that makes it a source of pollutants. Nitrogen oxide contributors are not only a problem for smog and respiratory issues but also for the agency’s effort to meet federal air quality standards.
That’s why last year the agency approved new requirements for certain buildings to use zero-emission water heaters and boilers when they need replacement.
Teresa Cheng, California director for Industrious Labs, a coalition member focused on creating cleaner industries, says these rules were for smaller “baby boilers” and that the coalition wants to see that applied to larger ones, which are covered under the agency’s 1146 and 1146.1 rule.
The push has caused concern in the gas industry. The California Fuels and Convenience Alliance, which represents small fuel retailers and industry suppliers, says boilers are essential in a wide range of manufacturing facilities that need high heat, like food processing, fuel production and more.
“CFCA is deeply concerned that requiring industrial facilities to abandon gas-fired boilers at the end of their useful life before the market is technologically or economically ready will still have severe consequences for manufacturers, workers and consumers,” the alliance said in a statement.
The organization says many facilities already have invested in “ultra-low” nitrogen oxide technology and that requiring a switch to zero-emissions equipment could destabilize the industry because of costs.
See the map
The map includes the number of boilers in each place, including how many aging units, and their permitted heating capacity. (That metric essentially correlates with how much pollution it can release.)
Cheng says the map is being shared to make the “invisible visible” so residents can know what’s around them. Most boilers are in communities that already deal with environmental pollution problems.
Boilers are even close to K-12 schools, like Glendale’s Herbert Hoover High School, which has its own.
“ These boilers have a very long lifeline,” she said. “If the air district doesn't pass zero-emissions rules for these boilers, we actually risk locking in decades more of pollution.”
