Global warming leaves bitter taste in mouth of wine industry experts

FRANCE: Rising temperatures may force vineyards north to Scotland from France

AN ALLIANCE of wine growers, gastronomes, environmentalists and food scientists has been formed to warn people about the dire consequences to France's cherished wine industry unless action is taken to reduce global warming.

In an open letter to Le Monde newspaper last week, more than 50 signatories - including the Michelin-starred chef Marc Veyrat, top sommelier Antoine Petrus and the head of Greenpeace in France, Pascal Husting - said that climate change is already having a serious effect on some of the country's best-known wine regions.

"Summer heatwaves, the recent hailstorms in the Bordeaux region, new diseases coming from the south - disturbances like these will soon be even more severe. The experts are all adamant: if we do not keep global warming below two degrees, the consequences for our ecosystems will be uncontrollable," they wrote.

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The letter, also signed by representatives from 35 French wine regions, called on President Nicolas Sarkozy to push for a 40% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 at December's climate conference in Copenhagen.

"The future of all of us depends on it," they said. The effects of climate change on the world's wine crop has for several years been a matter of heated interest - partly because vintage quality hinges closely on weather conditions, but also because for historical reasons many vineyards are in "marginal" areas that only just support them.

In Europe, for centuries vineyards have thrived between 35 and 50 degrees of latitude, roughly between Sicily and southern Germany, but with global warming it has been calculated that wine areas will begin to shift north: possibly even as far as southern Scotland and Sweden.

According to Bernard Seguin, wine expert at France's National Institute for Agronomic Research, each degree of average temperature rise over the coming century will likely create a move to the north of about 140 miles for wine-growing areas. "The wine-growing map is certain to change, but the way it does will depend on how we react to global warming. If the temperature goes up two or three degrees only, then we can probably manage it so that Bordeaux stays Bordeaux and Rioja stays Rioja," he said. "But if temperatures go up by five or six degrees, then big problems lie ahead of us and the changes will be pretty brutal."

Wine growers in France have already noted significant changes in their annual cycle. Harvests are tending to take place several days earlier and the fermented grape juice is becoming sweeter and more alcoholic. Subtler flavours are finding it harder to emerge. "Global warming is creating wines which are spicier and richer, with much higher alcohol content. They are less easily digestible, less refined and less easy to drink on a daily basis," said sommelier Franck Thomas.

Ironically, the effect of temperature rises has in the short term been favourable - at least for areas such as Bordeaux where better weather means the grapes ripen more consistently. It can also be argued that one region's loss is another's gain, with Brittany and Normandy perhaps one day taking over from the south. But in France the future of wine is also a deeply cultural affair and those who work in the field worry about the disappearance of centuries of local expertise. Wines from the north will be built around science and the market, they fear.

In Spain, which has more surface of land planted with vines than France, there are even more severe problems, where the rising temperatures are making large areas unviable for grapes.

In America, wine experts are watching the effects of climate change and millions of dollars are being spent on research into new strains of vine. One plan is even afoot to splice a cactus gene into the chardonnay grape in order to make it heat resistant.