Climate change is benefiting French wine
As climate change continues to warm the planet, French grape crops and the wine they produce appear to be benefitting. However, climate experts say there will be tipping point so you’d better drink fast.
Global warming has found an unlikely and possibly brief friendship with French wine. According to research recently featured in Nature Climate Change journal, scientists have found that warmer temperatures in France have decreased the standard growth cycle for wine grapes. Those grapes ripening quicker are more likely to have the perfect balance of sugar and acid, which is crucial to producing a high quality wine.
The study’s co-author, Benjamin Cook, a climate scientist with NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City, told NPR: “Before 1980, you basically needed a drought to generate the heat to get a really early harvest. But since 1980, it’s been so warm because of climate change that you can get the hot summers and really early harvests without needing a drought”.
The study is concentrated on over 500 years of harvest records in France.
Regrettably, while wine lovers may be enjoying some excellent French vintages now, partly due to the earlier harvests caused by global warming, it’s a trend that won’t continue to have a positive effect in the longer term.
He added, “If we keep warming the globe, we will reach a tipping point,” study author Elizabeth Wolkovich of Harvard said in a statement. “The trend, in general, is that earlier harvests lead to higher-quality wine, but you can connect the dots here … we have several data points that tell us there is a threshold we will probably cross in the future where higher temperatures will not produce higher quality”.
Climate change does appear to have a mixed impact on different winemaking regions worldwide. While France may be enjoying some better quality wine grapes as a result of earlier harvests, not all winemakers are so lucky.
Lee Hannah, a climate change biologist at Conservation International, who co-authored a 2013 investigation which warned that grape growers may ultimately need to move their vineyards to higher elevations and latitudes at some point in the future to avoid the rising temperatures from global warming.
Hannah told NPR that the rise in temperatures and drought conditions in California have many worried that winemaking regions like Napa and Sonoma Counties could become too hot to produce quality wines.
He added, “People have been very worried about what this latest drought could mean for wine production in California”.
Wine lover living in France? Contact deVere France today for expert personalised advice on your finances.
As climate change continues to warm the planet, French grape crops and the wine they produce appear to be benefitting. However, climate experts say there will be tipping point so you’d better drink fast.
Global warming has found an unlikely and possibly brief friendship with French wine. According to research recently featured in Nature Climate Change journal, scientists have found that warmer temperatures in France have decreased the standard growth cycle for wine grapes. Those grapes ripening quicker are more likely to have the perfect balance of sugar and acid, which is crucial to producing a high quality wine.
The study’s co-author, Benjamin Cook, a climate scientist with NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York City, told NPR: “Before 1980, you basically needed a drought to generate the heat to get a really early harvest. But since 1980, it’s been so warm because of climate change that you can get the hot summers and really early harvests without needing a drought”.
The study is concentrated on over 500 years of harvest records in France.
Regrettably, while wine lovers may be enjoying some excellent French vintages now, partly due to the earlier harvests caused by global warming, it’s a trend that won’t continue to have a positive effect in the longer term.
He added, “If we keep warming the globe, we will reach a tipping point,” study author Elizabeth Wolkovich of Harvard said in a statement. “The trend, in general, is that earlier harvests lead to higher-quality wine, but you can connect the dots here … we have several data points that tell us there is a threshold we will probably cross in the future where higher temperatures will not produce higher quality”.
Climate change does appear to have a mixed impact on different winemaking regions worldwide. While France may be enjoying some better quality wine grapes as a result of earlier harvests, not all winemakers are so lucky.
Lee Hannah, a climate change biologist at Conservation International, who co-authored a 2013 investigation which warned that grape growers may ultimately need to move their vineyards to higher elevations and latitudes at some point in the future to avoid the rising temperatures from global warming.
Hannah told NPR that the rise in temperatures and drought conditions in California have many worried that winemaking regions like Napa and Sonoma Counties could become too hot to produce quality wines.
He added, “People have been very worried about what this latest drought could mean for wine production in California”.
Wine lover living in France? Contact deVere France today for expert personalised advice on your finances.