
A world without wine?
Worldwide there are more than a thousand grape varieties, but only one percent of these contribute to making the wines we enjoy drinking
Andrew J. Linn
Friday, 6 October 2023, 18:31
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Andrew J. Linn
Friday, 6 October 2023, 18:31
A recent media topic in wine circles proposes that climate change may eventually cause the disappearance of all grapes. Apparently, there are winemakers concerned that their heirs may not be producing wine in 50 years' time. Even bodegas that have been making great wine for ... the last half century have found it necessary to adapt their methods to ensure survival. Vines that once thrived on south facing slopes have been transferred to north-facing, and growing periods have been truncated.
Worldwide there are more than a thousand grape varieties, but only one percent of these contribute to making the wines we enjoy drinking. The likelihood is that within the next half century only 15% will still be used, the remainder being located in zones that are too hot. What is the solution? In areas where vineyards cannot be relocated northwards: a change to different grape varieties that can withstand higher temperatures, and where vineyards can be moved, moved they will be.
It is such a deadly serious business that no-one was surprised when French champagne houses started buying up land in southern England for future production. In not so many decades the climate conditions of the South Downs will roughly equate to what the Champagne region was like a century ago, and within living memory, we would have laughed at the idea of making wine in Wales - now a reality. However, there will always be somewhere on the planet where grapes can be grown and wine made, so we regular wine quaffers really have nothing to worry about.
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