Recently ,we went to a wedding in the Champagne region of France; right in the middle of a heatwave. When we arrived at the château where the ceremony took place our car thermometer registered 38 degrees centigrade and it then got hotter. Can you imagine tending the vineyards in 38 degrees plus heat and which are much hotter in direct sunlight?
At the wedding ceremony, I spoke to a champagne producer who is a friend of the extended family. He said that the wine harvests are getting earlier owing to warmer temperatures and that the extra warmth is, at the moment, improving the quality of the grapes along with their sugar content. He is expecting a good harvest of high quality grapes this year. The harvest will probably be in late August.
Higher average temperatures are good for the wine industry at the moment especially in more northern climes.
But what are the prospects for the future? Our wine producer friend was not too happy for the future and within the next 15 to 20 years champagne producers will be considering the change to different grape varieties which are better able to withstand the increasing average temperatures. Growers will increasingly face difficult decisions as average temperatures continue to rise.
It is time for everyone to consider what could happen as a result of man made climate change. It is not just the future of the wine industry at stake: if we are not careful there will be fewer wine drinkers chasing fewer and fewer wines.
