Global warming ‘threat to wine industry’
Boston Bay Winery, Port Lincoln, South Australia - photo (c) Dave Sag, used with permission.
Australian wines are held in very high regard all over the world. Carbon Planet’s head office is in Adelaide, South Australia, where the wine industry is king. Mr Murdoch’s News Corp is running a story Global warming ‘threat to wine industry’.
AUSTRALIAN wine regions won’t be able to grow the grapes they’re famous for because of global warming, wine lawyers said today.
Lawyers from Adelaide-based Finlaysons rate climate change as the biggest long-term challenge facing Australia’s wine industry.
Wine quality could suffer from reduced harvest times, more extreme weather and reduced water supplies, Finlaysons partner Will Taylor said.
“Climate change is probably the biggest long-term issue facing the wine industry throughout the world and individual Australian winemakers and grapegrowers need to be planning for it now,” Mr Taylor said.
It’s not that they’ll have to stop growing grapes, but it’s true that the kinds of grapes grown in SA will have to change.
It’s not just the Australian wine industry under pressure. The famous Rhine Rieslings are getting sweeter because of global warming. French wines are getting heavier and Bulgarian wines, some of my favourites, are under threat.
I was in Sweden last year talking to farmers about the impact global warming is having on them and one fellow explained that, for the last few years the soil was simply not getting cold enough. Pests that were previously killed off by frost are now plentiful all year-round and this is having a dramatic impact on the kinds of crops they can grow. — DS
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