Climate change to affect Australian wine industry

A recent study has revealed that climate change is going to affect Australia's $5.5bn wine industry and threatens some of its favourite wines with extinction.

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) predicts that temperature rises of between 0.3C and 1.7C by 2030 and while in some colder climates this can lead to more consistent vintages - like for Riesling in the Mosel region of Germany - in Australia the effect is generally negative.

The study, Observed Trends in Winegrape Maturity in Australia, has found that the grapes were maturing faster in warmer temperatures, affecting quality and taste.

Wine expert Leanne Webb said, "All my modelling is showing that if the climate warms up - given that a variety is able to ripen well in a region in a present climate - the actual quality that we see will be decreasing."

"The wine drinkers may not understand the complexity that goes into it, but I am sure they can taste the difference,"Webb added.

Webb and her co-authors found the average ripening creep has increased to 1.7 days a year in the period 1993 to 2009 compared to 0.8 days a year from 1985 to 2009, reports news.com.au.

They believe that the temperature changes combined with some vineyard management practices that are causing the effect, while all regions will have to adapt it will be harder for the warmer zones.

Victorian Wine Industry Association chair Chris Pfeiffer, who grows grapes for pinot noir, chardonnay and muscat at Rutherglen in northeast Victoria, agreed it was not just slowly increasing average temperatures which threatened growers.

Wine Makers Australia natural resources manager Jonathon Green said, "Some grapes could actually improve with the change. It's not necessarily bad and probably depends on the region and variety."