Wine and Global Warming

When you hear the words "Global Warming", what are the first thoughts that pop in your head? According to The Wall Street Journal's blog - Environmental Capital, if you're an Aussie, it will probably be "No Worries!", others will mention: Higher Sea Level, more floods, hurricanes and fires,
you might also think about how quickly Greenland is Melting, about starvation and maybe you even notice the connection between global warming and disease warning. It is all true and there are many other effects you are already familiar with.
But today, I want to talk with you about something else; The connection between Wine and Global Warming.

Imagine a world in which Surrey, Southern England name has changed to New-Bordeaux (Bordeaux-Nouveau for French), world-class Riesling produced in Finland, and Eiswein most famous region is Greenland, because there still is some ice.
This may sound like a joke, and not a funny one, if you ask the winegrowers. Alas, it is not a joke, as if things keep on going the way they are, it will turn into reality soon enough so most of us will live to see that.

According to many sources, the European wine regions' average temperature changes by one degree centigrade every ten years, faster rate than the rest of the world, mainly due to greenhouse gas emission. This figure may sound negligible to a novice, but most of us are already aware of its meaning: that's a lot.
It simply means that climatic regions shift 180 kilometers off the equator, towards the nearest pole. In addition, the average temperature change is expected to grow. Now do the math.
And it is not only about the future. The changes are already here. For example, some French regions that traditionally used to rely on precipitation to provide the needed moisture for growing grapes have introduced irrigation systems to their vineyards, in order to save their industry.
The bottom line, the implications of higher temperature among others are earlier ripening, lower acidity, more irrigation, and if we proceed further, sunburn. But even before getting sunburnt, the vineyards will cease to exist. An important thing in grape growing (and life in general) is balance, and it is going to be lost with climatic changes.
Speaking of sunburn: in addition to global warming, greenhouse gas emission also destroys the ozone layer. This issue has been forgotten after some publications claimed that the situation has significantly improved. However, this doesn't mean that the ozone layer is complete again. Surprisingly, some say that excess UV radiation due to ozone layer thinning can contribute to grapes quality, in terms of anthocyanins level. The thing is, that similarly to people who get some suntan in order to protect the skin from sunburn, grapes produce antioxidants (anthocyanins) as a response to increased UV levels. Then the grapes are harvested, turned into wine and consumed by humans, who enjoy the antioxidants' benefits.
The only problem is, that humans will probably need to drink a lot of wine in order to compensate the high UV radiation levels... I'd rather stick to the current levels of both antioxidants in wine and UV radiation.

To summarize: so far wine drinking has shown certain benefits in facing the global warming and correlated issues, but I think we people would rather stop right here.

Cheers and may god bless the global cooling!
In other words: drink responsibly and in an aware way :)


Further reading:
A Warning on Climate Change by Eric Asimoc ( The New York Times)
Wine: A barometer of global warming by Molly Moore (The Arizona Republic)
French wine about global warming (Cosmos)
Climate Change - Miguel Torres can taste the difference By Piper Crowell - The UN Works
Pinot impossible in Burgundy over next 50 years by Kathleen Buckley and Adam Lechmere (decanter)

This post is part of Blog Action Day 2009