In
France's Languedoc region, rules for irrigating vines
are being relaxed, while growers in the U.S. are experimenting
with genetically modified heat-resistant grapes.
The world's premier wine-friendly zones could shift as much as 300 kms toward
the poles, according to the climate geographer Gregory Jones of Southern
Oregon University, possibly making northern Europe or New
Zealand more grape-friendly than Bordeaux or Australia. Germany
and Belgium would have grapes that would ripen well.
In addition to creating new wine regions, the warming trend is changing
established ones. Argentines are planting them closer
to the Andean slopes and in Patagonia. In South Africa,
winemakers have moved Sauvignon Blanc vines to higher altitudes and sought
patches open to cooling sea breezes.
In Ay region of Champagne, where producers such as
Moet & Chandon and Veuve Clicquot nurture precious plots, harvesters
hit fields in late August last year - the earliest since 1822, according
to the Champagne Growers' Committee, which sets harvest dates because
leaving the pinot noir and chardonnay grapes on the vine any longer would
have risked too much heat and alcohol.
Water will be a concern for all viticulturalists. Arid Australia has
been parched by the country's worst drought in a century. The predicted
sharp increase in dry spells in coming decades could shift winemaking
from hot Barossa Valley to the southern island of Tasmania.
In many vineyard areas of inland and southern Spain,
viticulture soon could be unsustainable without irrigation. Farmers today
grow vines in untrained bushes far apart to allow each a chance of surviving
on scarce underground water. Higher temperatures also make grapes more
sugary and wine too alcoholic.
Climate scientists say global warming has brought heavier than usual
rain to some regions creating fungus problems. A recent Italian study
suggested increased intense rains are a threat to Tuscan wine
quality.
Southern Europe's loss may prove to be England's gain, though. Traditionally, English wineries
planted German varieties, but now are moving toward varieties familiar
in France such as chardonnay and pinot noir.
China, too, may benefit. After a 60 percent expansion
over five years, it now has more vineyard acreage than the U.S. Russian researchers
believe valleys in southwest Siberia could produce marketable wines.
Purists say something will forever be lost when the weather in Burgundy is
too consistently hot to produce the early pinot noir that lends grand
crus their sophistication.
The changing climate is expected to make the Wonderful World of Wine
a Warming Wine World during the next 50 years. |