Hmmm, maybe there’s something to that “Wines grown in England during the Medieval Warm Period” after all. I think maybe the French are upset that Scottish wine might be served with kippers rather than truffles. Oh the horror!
From the UK Telegraph:
Best wines will come from Scotland if climate change is not stopped, French chefs say
Prominent French chefs have given warning that the country’s wines will lose their complexity and the best produce will come from Scotland if the effects of climate change are not tackled.
excerpts:
President Nicolas Sarkozy was posed a stark choice: save French wine by clinching a deal at the international climate conference in Copenhagen in December, or see generations of viticulture slowly die out as vineyards cross the Channel and head north.
“As flagships of our common cultural heritage, elegant and refined, French wines are today in danger,” 50 leading names from the world of French wine and food wrote in an open letter. “Marked by higher alcohol levels, over-sunned aromatic ranges and denser textures, our wines could lose their unique soul.”
Among the signatories were Marc Veyrat, a chef with three Michelin stars, Mauro Colagreco, the award-winning chef, and Franck Thomas, who was voted the best sommelier in the world. The message was also supported by a host of domains from Champagne to Languedoc-Roussillon.
Climate change has been blamed for degrading French vineyards, with heatwaves, giant summer hailstorms in Bordeaux and new plant diseases.
The signatories said that if global temperatures rose by more than two per cent before the end of the century, “our soil will not survive” and “wine will travel 1,000 kilometres beyond its traditional limits”.
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Sorry for hitting an old entry but I’ve just watched the TV news and they were talking about Jerez wines (aka Xerez, a region in Southern Spain, one of the warmest regions in Europe) they are harvesting the grapes right now. They expect to make more wine thatn last year, and that taking into account that this year has been very warm in Spain (unlike in other countries).
So, no worries about French wines being in danger. If anything, they should be worried about the new rival wines being produced in places like Chile or Australia.