Climate change is looming as the biggest issue facing the Australian wine industry. That is the view that is being conveyed to grape growers as part of a wine road show looking at short- and long-term survival tactics.

An estimated 900 million litres of wine are currently sitting in tanks waiting for a home, but Will Taylor from law firm Finlaysons says the glut is not the only issue.

He says climate change will be dramatic and one curious side effect is already being felt – Australian wines are becoming more alcoholic. “If we have warmer weather, more sunshine, grapes are going to ripen more rapidly and it’s going to convert into more alcohol,” he said.

“In fact, I was with a winemaker who was doing a retrospective of 25 years of his shiraz and he was saying how in recent years, not by design, the alcohol level in his shiraz had gone up, so I think that’s certainly one of the effects I think we are seeing.”

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