Does
Global Warming Affect Wine Quality?
When
you talk to grape growers and winemakers today, they will tell you climate is a
major factor in how good a vintage will be.
Researchers have found that vintages have improved as temperatures rose
over the last 50 years, especially in areas with cooler climates. Vineyards
in cooler climates, such as
Odds are we are
going to continue to see a warming environment, and there will be some
challenges the industry will have to meet one way or another.
Researchers have found that most vintages improved as vineyards'
temperatures rose an average of 1.3 degrees Celsius over the past 50 years. The
effects were strongest in cool climate regions, such as the
Cooler
climates, such as
A predicted
rise of another 2 degrees Celsius over the next half century could have more
mixed results. Rising temperatures
are already leading to changes in the industry. Whether
those changes will be permanent remains to be seen, but everyone agrees in most
scientific circles that change is occurring. What
that change is, is still up in the air. If
it really is catastrophic and not just a blip, vintners will definitely change
how they plant and where they plant.
In some areas,
the change could already have been very detrimental.
The extreme heat wave in
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