I have adopted the title to this article quite deliberately, and in doing so I must give full credit to John Steinbeck’s marvellous book (as well as acknowledging that under US law, copyright in the work may still subsist). It’s worth reminding ourselves of aspects of the book’s plot, and in doing so I save myself much effort by reproducing sections of the relevant Wikipedia pagei:
Set during the Great Depression, the novel focuses on the Joads, a poor family of tenant farmers driven from their Oklahoma home by drought, economic hardship, agricultural industry changes, and bank foreclosures forcing tenant farmers out of work. Due to their nearly hopeless situation, and in part because they are trapped in the Dust Bowl, the Joads set out for California along with thousands of other “Okies” seeking jobs, land, dignity, and a future.
I suspect that today the climate-concerned would be labelling them climate refugees. Later in the book, they make it to California, which for them does not turn in to a land of milk of honey:
With the winter rains, the Joads’ dwelling is flooded and the car disabled, and they move to higher ground.
Those floods would probably be the fault of climate change too, if they happened 80-90 years later. Of course, all this dramatic weather happened shortly after the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 which, as Wikipedia tells usii:
was the most destructive river flood in the history of the United States, with 27,000 square miles (70,000 km2) inundated in depths of up to 30 feet (9m) over the course of several months in early 1927. The uninflated cost of the damage has been estimated to be between 246 million and 1 billion dollars.
Over 630,000 people were directly affected, most (94%) in Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana, especially in the Mississippi Delta. More than 200,000 African Americans were displaced from their homes along the Lower Mississippi River and had to live for lengthy periods in relief camps.
If it happened now, no doubt the media would call it climate chaos or climate weirding or something, and it would all be our fault. But I digress. I don’t want to talk about climate chaos in the USA in the 1920s and 1930s. Instead I want to talk about wine production in 2021.
Record Wine Production in the Southern Hemisphere Thanks to Perfect Weather
Funny, you might think, I don’t remember seeing any headlines along those lines. Well, you wouldn’t (not at the BBC or the Guardian, anyway), because they don’t fit the scary climate chaos narrative that has been building all year in the run-up to COP 26. In fact, it’s worse than that, as it isn’t just the Guardian and the BBC who are reluctant to acknowledge the massive success of wine growers in the southern hemisphere this year. A lengthy internet search using various search terms yielded only gloomy headlines about global wine production being down this year (which it is, due to the northern hemisphere having suffered poor grape-growing weather).
Well, what’s the story down south? It’s rather good in fact, as the new.in-24 website tells usiii:
As for the southern hemisphere, it can have a smile. 2021 was “very positive” for its vineyards, after a bad year 2020. Wine production should reach a record level of 59 million hectoliters (+ 19%).
In South America, Chile produced 13.4 million hectoliters (+ 30% over one year), the highest for 20 years. Argentina follows, with 12.5 million hectoliters (+ 16%). Brazil posted a 60% jump to 3.6 million hectoliters.
On the Oceania side, Australia saw its harvest increase by 30% to 14.2 million hectoliters, the highest since 2006.
Presumably that’s a benefit (even if only for 2021) of climate change – or perhaps not; it’s just been a good weather year for wine-makers in the southern hemisphere. At least, I’ve not seen anyone claiming “Very positive year for wine-makers in Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Australia thanks to climate change.”
Warning over ‘extremely low’ wine production in Europe due to bad weather
Industry body head warns there is ‘no vaccine’ against climate change and winemakers must adapt with ‘urgent necessity’
Ah, that’s more like it – a Guardian headlineiv to reflect the prevailing narrative. And sure enough, the Guardian article commences as one might expect:
World wine production is expected to fall to one of its lowest levels on record after harsh weather battered vineyards in Europe’s major wine-producing regions.
The conditions “severely impacted” production in Italy, Spain and France, resulting in “extremely low” production volumes, an international wine body has said.
The Guardian does acknowledge what a great year for wine the southern hemisphere has had, but remains markedly tight-lipped about whether climate change has anything to do with it:
A drop in production in Italy, Spain and France, the world’s largest wine producers, would outweigh what is forecast to be the highest-ever volume in the southern hemisphere, the OIV [Organisation of Vine and Wine] said…
In the southern hemisphere, favourable weather should allow high output in major producing countries, except for New Zealand, the OIV said. Total output for the southern hemisphere was projected at a record 59 mhl, up 19% from last year.
When it’s good news, it’s favourable weather – not a hint of climate change in sight. When it’s bad news, well that’s a different story entirely:
“If wine growers adapted relatively well to the Covid-19 crisis last year, they were now “confronting a much greater problem than the pandemic: climate change,” Roca said.
He said adverse weather events were occurring more and more frequently.
While “there is no vaccine” against climate change, he said “there are long-term solutions which will require major efforts in terms of sustainable practices for cultivating vines and producing wine”. He said adaptation was an “urgent necessity” for the industry.
The only problem with blaming “adverse weather” on climate change, is that by adverse weather in this case, they mean things like cold, frost and rain – and that wasn’t in the script. Climate Change Post’s websitev, last updated on 7th November 2021, talks about things like more heat waves, higher mean temperatures and more droughts and less rainfall, thanks to climate change. Of course, a one-off event that contradicts the models doesn’t mean the models are wrong, but when it’s an event that is the opposite of the predictions, I don’t see how it can be prayed in aid of the climate change script. According to Climate Change Post, “there is a spatially consistent warming trend in summer over France and a clear trend to fewer cool nights and more hot days.” Also, “Research results, based on projections for seven climate models, point at +0.4 to -14% change in annual precipitation in 2050 (A1B emissions scenario) and +4 to -24% change in annual precipitation in 2080 (A2 and A1B emissions scenarios), compared to the present day (1971-2000).”
The claim that climate change is responsible for European wines’ ills in 2021 is arguably worse than simply blaming bad weather that wasn’t predicted by climate models on climate change, in my opinion.
Best loved wines at risk from climate change
That was the heading to an article on the BBC websitevi from 20th October 2010, more than 11 years ago. The thrust of the article was about how wine-making would suffer, not only in Europe, but around the world, from rising temperatures – not from cold and bad weather. Somewhat ironically, given the wonderful season enjoyed in Chile and Argentina this year, we were warned that “Argentina and Chile are moving wine production higher into the cool Andes – as climate change threatens the world’s wines.”
The article actually acknowledged that some wines might benefit from warmer temperatures, but that couldn’t be allowed to pass without adverse comment:
But while Rioja is thriving, Mr Campo warns that this will be a “very short golden age” if climate change is not combated.
“Temperatures will continue to rise, and the question is how far they are going to go and how long is this period of benefit going to last. That’s my biggest concern,” he says.
So it’s more than a little ironic that Spain’s wine production this year has, like France’s, been harmed by cold temperatures, not by heat. The comments eleven years ago about German wine-making are also, in the circumstances, a little ironic:
In Germany, winemakers are also starting to question the long-term effects of higher temperatures.
“It’s now easy to get decent ripeness, but it definitely doesn’t bring the quality to the wine,” says Florian Busch, a Riesling grower in the Mosel Valley.
“Since 2004 we’ve had the black rot fungus, which used to live just in more southerly regions.
“Something is happening. Something is coming from the south,” he says.
Fellow Mosel winemaker, Ernst Loosen, also fears that changing weather patterns will cause long term damage.
And yet in 2021, we learn from the new.in-24 website cited above, that, despite the summer’s floods, “Germany, the fourth European producer [i.e. behind France, Spain and Italy], fared well, with production up 4% to 8.8 million hectoliters”.
By the way, we’ve now come full circle – that BBC article from 2010 was titled “Costing the Earth, Grapes of Wrath” (I don’t think Steinbeck got any credit). Unfortunately for them, things haven’t worked out as they expected.
One last point, despite all the tales we have had of “unprecedented” wild fires in the USA in 2021, and of the havoc being wrought there by climate change, we also learn from new.in-24 that “In the United States, production is estimated at 24.1 million hectoliters, up 6% from 2020, a year marked by fires.”Weren’t we told that 2021 was also a year marked by fires in the United States?
Conclusion
Wine-making has always been a business that can see success or failure, depending on the weather, and also on other factors, such as the phylloxera blight that caused such devastation to French wines in the 19th century. It may well be that long-term climatic trends are in evidence and that they may have an impact on wine-making in various regions. In some regions, warmer weather may be helpful, in others it may be unhelpful. Growers may need to contemplate different grape varieties. Climate change may need to be studied and taken into account if wine-making is to continue to thrive in a number of traditional vine-growing regions. All of that I accept.
What I struggle to accept is the almost complete failure on the part of the mainstream media to say much if anything at all about the successful season just enjoyed by wine-makers in the southern hemisphere, thanks to beneficial weather. Their willingness to blame climate change for the problems encountered this year by wine-makers in France, Spain and Italy, due to cold weather of the sort that climate models didn’t predict is equally annoying. We now live in an era where if anything bad happens and it’s weather-related, then it’s evidence of Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming (or climate chaos or whatever), but if something good happens, thanks to some good weather, that’s just weather, it’s quietly ignored, and it certainly doesn’t – and mustn’t be allowed to – undermine the catastrophic message.
Anyway, never mind all that – where’s the corkscrew? Cheers!
Endnotes
i https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grapes_of_Wrath
ii https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Mississippi_Flood_of_1927
iii https://new.in-24.com/business/293784.html
iv https://www.theguardian.com/food/2021/nov/05/warning-over-extremely-low-wine-production-in-europe-due-to-bad-weather
Climate Scepticism 
Cheers, Mark!
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It is amazing. There were never bad wine years or crop failures before St. Hansen prophesied Climate Doom and his Apostle, the beatified Al Gore, proclaimed the prophecy as Holy Writ.
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As a young lad, who had barely tasted grape juice let alone the fermented varieties, I was told that superior wines always came from vines grown in barely climatically suitable locations (hence the superiority of German wines). Thus those vineyards suffered more often from “bad years” but the smaller volumes were commonly prized more. Thus, if areas of European viniculture have suffered from climate disruption involving increased temperatures, then it might be supposed that volumes of wine produced should increase, but quality should decrease.
I have also head that in bad (=good) years when there is overproduction, the unwanted surplus would be thrown away in order to maintain prices.
Mark. What has happened to British wine production?
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Alan, I think “British” wine production is mostly English and Welsh, for climatic reasons (though I note that there are Scottish wines too). The English & Welsh wines seem to have suffered from less helpful weather, just as in France. The irony is, of course, that warmer, drier seasons (what we are warned is part of climate chaos) would benefit them, but this year in the south of England & Wales, alas, it was not to be (unlike in the north of England and Scotland, which enjoyed a pretty good summer).
“2021 English harvest proves challenging for growers”
thedrinksbusiness.com/2021/11/english-wine-harvest/
“Grape pickers across England and Wales have now hung up their coats. To the relief of many, the 2021 harvest in England and Wales is complete. After a string of warm years, the wetter and cooler 2021 vintage has proved challenging. Reports indicate difficult ripening conditions, reduced yields, and a shortage of workers.
The summer of 2021 was cooler, wetter, and less sunny than the previous years on average. Other than some peaks in May, July and September, temperatures hovered several degrees below the previous three-year average (2018-20).
“It was a really challenging summer. We had frost in Spring and rain at flowering. Then it was overcast and there was quite a serious lack of sun hours, even though it was warm”, said Simon Roberts, Head winemaker at Ridgeview Wine Estate in Sussex.
At Ridgeview’s estate vineyards, harvest started on October 17th, three weeks later than in 2020. This followed a slow start to the season. Budburst was just five days later than last year, but flowering didn’t begin until July 6th, over three behind 2020. Veraison, which started on September 7th, was two weeks behind.
Despite this, he says that the juice still shows high quality: “It has been a really long growing season. There is still complexity, but the juice is more linear – less tropical and more citrus.”
Rainfall during summer was up significantly on previous years, contributing to disease pressure in the vineyards. A late harvest also paved the way for bird damage and further disease.
Ian Kellett, owner of Hambledon Vineyard, didn’t mince his words: “It was the worst year for Downey Mildew I have seen since I started in viticulture.”
This meant that keeping on top of spray schedules and summer pruning was critical for grape health.
Over in Somerset, a change in vineyard management saved Aldwick Estate from the worst of the problems. It began to change its pruning system last year, arching the canes (using the pendelbogan method) and lowering the fruiting cane. The canopy became more even and received more sunlight – good for growing clean and ripe grapes.
Managing Director Sandy Luck suggests that this was largely responsible for the estate’s “huge crop” this year, which included record yields of Bacchus, and sugar and acidity levels close to 2020.
This appears to have been a rare exception. “Yields were awful”, said Kellett – a common sentiment among growers.”
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This is all very well (actually it seems it wasn’t) but what we sceptical bastards are so desperate to find out is whether the poor grape growing season in England is being blamed upon climate chaos. Then we can drown our sorrows with bottles of antipodean booze and regret the ‘food’-miles.
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Alan, that report I cited was dated 5th November 2021, so there’s lots of time yet for a lengthy Guardian article catching up with the poor grape harvest in England & Wales this year, and blaming it on climate chaos. If and when they do run such an article, my money would be on them ignoring the good harvests in 2018, 2019 and 2020 (which, if they do mention them, will be down to weather, not climate).
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They’re still at it:
“Frosts, heatwaves and wildfires: the climate crisis is hitting the wine industry hard”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/dec/09/climate-crisis-wine-industry
“Grapes for wine making are grown across the world including countries in Europe, South America and Africa. But as the climate crisis intensifies – bringing increasingly severe wildfires, warmer summers, milder winters as well as unpredictable frosts and rainfall – it is changing wine production.
Grapes are among the most sensitive crops to climate changes. For some producers, warming temperatures have been advantageous, at least in the short term. Changing rain patterns, earlier springs and droughts are starting to push wine production towards the poles. There are vineyards as far north as Norway’s Flatdal region. And vineyards in countries such as England have been thriving as Europe experiences warming temperatures.
However, for many wine growers the climate crisis is making life much harder. If temperatures rise too quickly, grapes will ripen faster than usual affecting the flavor of the wine. If temperatures plunge, it can devastate vineyards – destroying buds, reducing yield and even killing the vines. Premium grapes for high end wine, in particular, flourish in a very narrow range of weather conditions.”
At least the story wasn’t completely negative, which makes a refreshing change, though the main thrust is of course “climate change =catastrophe”.
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“The California storms were great for wine”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64338378
By the way, is the BBC in competition with the Guardian for climate hyperbole? “The spiralling doom loop of climate change”!
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Despite recent problems with wine in places like Spain being because of unusual cold weather, the Guardian is still running with the climate change narrative with regard to wine:
“Climate-resistant grapes? Spanish winemakers revive ancient varieties
Forgotten grape varieties offer adaptation hope for an industry particularly sensitive to change”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/28/canary-coalmine-spanish-winemakers-climate-threat-grape-varieties
Here’s a thought. If we need ancient varieties of grape to cope with a warmer world, might not that suggest that they thrived in the past….when it was warmer?
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The Grapes of Warmth ?
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Perhaps I’m remembering it wrongly but I always used to think that the best years for a given wine were those where the vines were particularly stressed commonly by water shortage at critical stages in their annual growth. This commonly meant that in those years there was a shortage of that particular wine, even though it might be of exceptional quality. One might therefore think, given all the problems climate change has seemingly caused that, much vintage wine is being laid down — far distant from this weeks news stories.
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Ah yes, but those were the days when wine was a superior product for superior people, not shipped in sea-going tankers for the hoi polloi.
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Remember that 2021 saw bumper wine harvests in Australasia (see references in the article on which I’m adding this as a comment). 2022 wasn’t bad either:
“Production down but inventories rise in 2022”
https://www.wineaustralia.com/news/market-bulletin/issue-276
But it doesn’t stop the BBC:
“Climate change: How it’s endangering Australian wine”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-62489056
I struggled to keep a straight face when I read this:
No qualifications, no hesitation, it will get worse. Why? Because models say so.
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“English wine producers predict bumper harvests after July rainfall
Growers say temperatures have been just right and expect their highest and best yields of grapes to date”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/aug/11/english-wine-producers-predict-bumper-harvests-after-july-rainfall
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“Bordeaux bloodbath! France pays winemakers to dig up vines
Red wine consumption in France has declined substantially in recent decades, in favor of beer and other beverages.”
https://www.politico.eu/article/bordeaux-wine-france-climate-change-uproot-vineyards/
This article inserts the obligatory reference to climate change:
However, the reality is that Bordeaux makers produce more of it than they can sell: The story has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with climate change, as is apparent when reading on:
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Mark – thanks for that comment & link.
I notice sales to China feature as much as “climate change”
“For Renaud Jean, another Bordeaux winemaker, those rules are too strict. “We should have liberalized our practices a little bit” to experiment and create wines that come closer to the consumer’s changing tastes, said the winemaker, who will uproot 15 hectares out of 35 this year.
More than a half of his bottles are shipped to China”
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“An Arizona malbec? How the arid state became America’s newest wine country”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/22/arizona-wine-industry-drought-climate-crisis
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As for climate affecting weather, the BBC has now caught up with the story about French wine growers being paid to stop growing wine, because of falling demand:
“France to spend €200m destroying wine as demand falls”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-66623636
The interesting snippet is this:
So it hasn’t declined at all, and if climate change has had any impact, it certainly isn’t negative.
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“English winemakers expecting record crop after ‘exceptional’ conditions
Trade body for England and Wales says 2023 shaping up to be high-quality, high-volume vintage as industry expands”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/oct/19/english-winemakers-expecting-record-crop-after-exceptional-conditions
Perhaps Roger Hallam should give up on carrots and move in to wine, then climate change needn’t worry him so much.
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“Gloucestershire vineyard harvests its first Chardonnay grape”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-67159776
Given that the Guardian (of all newspapers) included the piece I linked to and quoted from in my last comment on this thread, and given that it celebrated English winemakers’ “biggest ever crop [this year due to, inter alia] favourable weather conditions”, one might have thought that English wine-making was a good news story to be celebrated, especially by the national broadcaster. Fat chance! This is the BBC’s miserable take on it all:
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Almost incredibly (though as that it appears at the BBC, unsurprisingly), given the UK’s best ever grape wine crop in 2023, the BBC offers us this:
“Climate change making it harder to produce wine, says vineyard”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-67238490
No context, no mention of the record crop this year. Very disappointing, BBC.
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Wait . . . . . what?
“A Dorset winemaker has said the varied summer weather could mean a bumper crop this year.
Claire Parker, from Melbury Vale Winery in Dorset, said they could do with one more month of “really decent weather”.
Across England vineyards could see an unusually productive harvest in 2023 after the contrasting temperatures in June and July.
Ms Parker said “breezy sunny days” and “gentle rain overnight” were the perfect conditions.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-dorset-66578929
Who are the BBC kidding?
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Alas, I’m letting the side down, by enjoying a French Malbec . . . . . .
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“Global wine production falls to 62-year low in 2023”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-67343009
It seems clear that there is something in the story, but a few caveats should be noted:
Could it be that output has fallen as a response to falling demand? Certainly, the French government is encouraging alternative land-use:
And the OIV website, which majors on the weather/climate aspect of this story, also cautions:
And it is a forecast – these are not post-harvest figures (at least not world-wide). Finally:
You can add the UK to reports of an excellent harvest, even if volumes in the UK are still small@
https://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2023/10/amazing-harvest-with-unbelievable-yields-starts-in-england/
If demand is declining, then wine users may reasonably be expected to cut consumption or move into different forms of agriculture. This, I think, is significant:
https://www.wineaustralia.com/news/market-bulletin/issue-294
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“‘Vintage to remember’: UK produces biggest ever grape harvest
Weather and increase in plantings lead to bumper conditions for wine production”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/dec/21/uk-vineyards-biggest-ever-grape-harvest-wine-production
Strange – not a mention of climate change, let alone “climate crisis”.
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“‘It’s a sun trap’: climate crisis brings boomtime for British wine
UK vineyards are thriving as far north as Yorkshire and Scotland as investors cash in on tax breaks and hotter summers”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/apr/12/its-a-sun-trap-climate-crisis-brings-boomtime-for-british-wine
I suppose you have to say things like this if you want the Guardian to plug your business:
“I don’t want to put a positive spin on climate change, because it’s not a positive thing,” says Pike. “For every degree it goes up here the temperature and the weather changes elsewhere. People who are growing in Burgundy are facing things they have never faced before because of the unpredictability of the weather.”
Nevertheless:
“He is part of a booming industry as the climate crisis and the lure of tax breaks and a new asset class transform viticulture. Knight Frank, the property agents, calls Britain the fastest-growing wine region in the world. Vineyards produce the fastest-growing edible agricultural crop in England, according to recent data issued by the Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs, and grapes represent 36% of England’s soft fruit crop.
There are now 943 vineyards in the UK, almost triple the number 20 years ago, according to a report published in June 2023 by WineGB, the body that promotes the growth of the British wine sector.
WineGB reported a 74% increase in vine plantings to 4,000 hectares (9,884 acres) in the previous five years, and plantings are expected to reach 7,600 hectares by 2032 yielding a potential 24.7m bottles. Between 2017 and 2022, England and Wales more than doubled wine production from 5.3m to 12.2m bottles, according to WineGB.
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Of course, yes, heaven forbid anyone would be caught trying to put a “positive spin” on climate change because the Settled Science is clear: all bad stuff happens because of climate change. There’s so much bad stuff happening and due to happen (in the next 2, 5, 10, 100 years according to the latest ‘expert’ opinions) that you cannot possibly look at a booming British wine industry and ‘t Yorkshire finest Bordeaux in isolation and say that it’s ‘good’.
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“Large English vineyards mark boom year as output and investment soars
Though tiny compared with rivals, English wine trade is thriving as climate crisis fuels flood of new capital from investors”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/aug/05/large-english-vineyards-mark-boom-year-as-output-and-investment-soars
Some “crisis”!
The largest English vineyards increased their revenues by 15% last year, as wine investors respond to the climate crisis by planting more vines.
While the UK still languishes well down the list of the largest wine-producing nations, below countries such as Uzbekistan and Tunisia, the industry’s output has soared in recent years, rising by 77% last year to 161,960 hectolitres, equivalent to 21.6m bottles.
Analysis of Companies House filings for the seven largest vineyards shows that their turnover, led by Kent-based Chapel Down, rose from £32m to £37m last year, more than three times higher than the £13m recorded in 2018-19.
One of the drivers for growth has been the “improved growing conditions in the UK as a result of climate change,” according to accountancy UHY Hacker Young, which reviewed the companies’ accounts….
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Mark – from just below the header on that article –
“UK vineyards are thriving as far north as Yorkshire and Scotland as investors cash in on tax breaks and hotter summers”.
Wonder what the “tax breaks” might be? well they are explained at the end of the article –
“”Another factor encouraging wealthy individuals to invest in vineyards are agricultural property relief (APR) rules, which allow UK residents to pass on agricultural property, including vineyards and woodland, without having to pay inheritance tax. The tax laws were designed to ensure families could continue to farm without death duties but have proved attractive to wealthy investors who want to pass on their assets.
However, Peter Harker, partner at consultants Saffery, says this is often only one reason for private investors to buy vineyards. “I would say it’s one factor. It’s a bonus, though not the reason why people do it,” he says.”
Always wondered why so many celebs seem to own vineyards & wineries.
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dfhunter,
As the Labour government looks around to raise money to fund the net zero madness, I have heard rumours that agricultural property relief might be in their sights. I don’t know if there is any truth in the rumours, however. We may find out in October.
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“In from the cold: Scandi wines hope to win over drinkers”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx27w5q315ro
Inevitably the BBC pushes the climate change article (though not so hard as I might have expected). Interestingly, however, we get this:
…it is the emergence of new, hardier grapes that largely kick-started the rise of Scandinavian wineries. “Climate change makes it easier for sure, but the main driver is the new cultivars.”…
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Mark – from your link I found this quote interesting “Commercial vineyards in Denmark and Sweden have only been allowed under European Union rules since 2000”
Found this article relevant – (PDF) Wine production in Denmark Do the characteristics of the vineyards affect the chances for awards?
“Due to pressure from the Danish Government the August 2000 revision of the EU Wine Regulation made it legal also to produce wine on a commercial basis in Denmark (the same was decided for Sweden and Ireland)
It has many graphs and Climate changes and innovation gets mentioned in the 5. Conclusion section.
ps – rereading the 2 comments above your latest makes me wonder why this –
“Another factor encouraging wealthy individuals to invest in vineyards are agricultural property relief (APR) rules, which allow UK residents to pass on agricultural property, including vineyards and woodland, without having to pay inheritance tax”
has not been reported more prominently by the Farmers union? these are the people who are milking the “inheritance tax” not hard working farmers?
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“Chet Valley Vineyard wine output falls after difficult 2024”
EDP link.
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“Top winemaker ‘may have to leave its Spanish vineyards due to climate crisis’
Familia Torres has been making wine in Catalonia since 1870, but says it may have to move to higher altitudes in 30 years’ time”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/may/17/top-winemaker-spanish-vineyards-climate-crisis-familia-torres
A leading European winemaker has warned it may have to abandon its ancestral lands in Catalonia in 30 years’ time because climate change could make traditional growing areas too dry and hot.
Familia Torres is already installing irrigation at its vineyards in Spain and California and is planting vines on land at higher altitudes as it tries to adapt to more extreme conditions.
“Irrigation is the future. We do not rely on the weather,” said its 83-year-old president, Miguel Torres. “I don’t know how long we can stay here making good wines, maybe 20 or 30 years, I don’t know. Climate change is changing all the circumstances.”…
Maybe 20 years, maybe 30 years, he doesn’t know. Maybe not at all. I could have posted this under “Whatever the Weather”, given what follows:
...Torres’s comments come after a difficult few years for European vineyards. He said production was down as much as 50% in some of the winemaker’s regions in 2023 – “the worst year I have ever seen” – and still down on historic averages last year amid extreme heat and drought.
This year so far has been better – amid winter and spring rains and wider use of irrigation – but Torres said he was concerned that damper conditions bring the threat of mildew....
Too dry, too wet, it has to be just right, like the porridge in Goldilocks and the Three Bears. If it isn’t just right, well then, that must be climate change. And perhaps the reality is in fact that it isn’t climate change, but harsh economic circumstances:
...potential threats from US import tariffs on top of additional duties imposed on wine in the UK in recent years, as well as a new packaging tax which is particularly high for glass bottles and jars.
Torres said exports to the UK have fallen by as much as 10% and absorbing some of the cost increases has further knocked profits.
“We have no profit in exports to the UK, that is the reality. Hundreds of thousands of English people come to Spain on holiday and know the brand. We have to keep it alive in the UK.”
He said Torres was considering bottling some of its cheaper wines in the UK in order to reduce cost – as it is less costly to import in bulk in tankers....
Interestingly, he concludes that there is no alternative to exporting his wine to the UK – making it in the UK isn’t an option. What, not even in 20, maybe 30 years’ time? Not even with climate change? Meanwhile, there is an alternative reality:
“Catalan wine goes from strength to strength”
https://www.11onze.cat/en/magazine/catalan-wine-strength/
Catalonia has a rich winemaking tradition that is reflected in its twelve designations of origin (DO): Alella, Catalunya, Cava, Conca de Barberà, Costers del Segre, Empordá, Montsant, Penedès, Pla de Bages, Priorat, Tarragona and Terra Alta. These territories are recognised both nationally and internationally for the production of quality wines and form part of a wine-growing ecosystem that continues to grow in all its specialities.
This is what can be gleaned from the latest study on the wine value chain in Catalonia, elaborated by the Catalan Government’s Department of Business and Employment through ACCIÓ, the Agency for Business Competitiveness, which analyses the state of health of the Catalan wine and Cava sector.
According to this report, the turnover of this sector has doubled since 2016, when it was last analysed, with 62% more companies turning over €3,267 million a year (an increase of 104%), equivalent to 1.2% of GDP, and employing 10,460 people....
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“Wine helps farming family cope with climate change”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2013250gepo
…Anecdotally, the Carlisles say they have seen farmers across the country adapting to the warming climate and that growing grapes seems to be becoming more popular in the farming community.
“We wanted to make the most of the changing climate. It’s getting warmer and warmer. We have the perfect soil for growing grapes,” said Georgie Carlisle.
Her brother Will adds: “The French climate is getting a lot warmer and where we currently are now, soil wise, we’re exactly the same soil type as like the Champagne region.”
Climate experts say that the general weather trend, with a warming climate, will see winters become warmer and wetter and the summers hotter and drier.
So far the weather this year has been good for the vines but they have had the ups and downs of the typical British weather since they were planted as Georgie explains: “We’ve had their frost fans on for about six or seven nights in total, which causes sleepless nights. We have to check their temperature all the time.
“The temperature varies from the top to the bottom of the field.
“We had -1.8C at the bottom of the field and four to five degrees at the top. It is quite tricky to try and manage.”...
Not climate change, then….
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“The Guardian view on France’s wine crisis: the answer to claret could be clairet”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/15/the-guardian-view-on-frances-wine-crisis-the-answer-to-claret-could-be-clairet
According to the Guardian:
…This once timeless rhythm is now collapsing. Part of the problem is the climate crisis. Bordeaux still benefits from its moderate Atlantic climate. But south-west France is getting much hotter and drier. Even in the Gironde region, maximum temperatures have been close to 40C at times this past week. Adaptation, in the form of hardier grapes and greater crop diversity, feels unavoidable….
Read on, however , and the truth is revealed:
…A much larger challenge, however, is today’s changing wine market. Demand for red wine in general, and for the full-bodied, long maturing red wines with generally high alcohol content that are synonymous with Bordeaux in particular, has slumped. This has affected not just the signature premiers crus in which monarchs and the global rich have always invested, but also the vineyards producing the ordinary Bordeaux red wines sold in supermarkets around the globe. For a region whose wine output is 85% red, this is an existential crisis.
Bordeaux produces around 650m bottles of wine each year; but it currently sells only 500m. Demand for red wine in France has fallen by 38% in the past five years; in the 10 years to 2023 the fall was 45%. Nor is the slump confined to France. Demand in the Chinese market has halved since 2017. US tariffs will undoubtedly hit the 20% of Bordeaux exports that previously went across the Atlantic. These consumption changes are likely to be irreversible, at least in the short and medium term.…
So not climate change, then.
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As a canny Scot I buy Tesco’s boxed Wine Route Chile Merlot 2.25L £15.50.
The wife also likes boxed Wine Route Chile Sauvignon Blanc 2.25L £15.00.
So as opposed to shipping from France they come all the way from Chile!!!
Have to admit I am not a wine expert but we both enjoy them, so that’s all that matters.
PS – Isle Of Man only has Tesco as a large supermarket.
PPS – “existential crisis” seems to crop up a lot lately, thought I knew what it meant, but did a quick search, seems I know diddly –
Existential crisis | Definition, Meaning, Symptoms, Examples, & Depression | Britannica
Partial quote – “Characteristics
Although the defining characteristics of an existential crisis vary among psychologists, most agree that it is at heart a period of anxiety and conflict about purpose and life’s meaning. Some psychologists focus on the existential crisis as a question of identity and whom a person wants to be. Others say it revolves around feelings of responsibility and commitment versus independence and freedom. Many say it is a confrontation with realizations about existential realities such as death. An existential conflict is often considered to be related to spirituality, as many people find meaning in spiritual practice.”
No wiser.
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“Vineyard experiences ‘best year’ due to summer sun”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn5e6nxzl22o
A vineyard owner in Shropshire has said 2025 has been his “best year” for harvesting due to the sustained hot weather.
Rob Greenow purchased Veenow in Telford in 2020 with his wife Katie and said the year’s weather had helped fight off mildew, which could harm the health and yield of grapevines.
But the heat has also made the fruit “pack more punch and flavour”, which Mr Greenow said would “shine through” when they made their wine later in the year.
“For grape quality, vine health and just overall vineyard growing it’s been the best year I’d say that we’ve had,” he said…..
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Wonder if that will make the MSM news as opposed to the farmers interviewed saying climate change means they can’t survive this hot summer with yields down?
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“Climate change pushing winemakers to blend wines from different years”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czxp41y3n7lo
…with climate change hitting vineyards around the world with more extreme weather, a small but growing number of quality-conscious wineries are releasing non-vintage bottles so they can make a more consistent wine.…
Then we get this rather odd snippet (odd, that is, if you believe wine-makers are facing a climate catastrophe:
…While the world’s still wines remain mostly vintage, there is one type of wine where non-vintage blends actually dominate – sparkling wine.
This is led by France’s champagnes, where the vast majority of those produced have always been non-vintage.
Historically this was a necessity, as Champagne is the most northern wine region in France, and good summers were rare. So champagne-makers had little choice but to blend wines from different years to create a consistent, quality product.
Yet thanks to climate change bringing warmer summers to northern France, there is now more vintage champagne being produced than ever before….
Even assuming (a major assumption) that the BBC’s crisis-laden article has a hint of truth about it, does it matter? Ironically, the BBC’s conclusion seems to be “no”.
…Back in California’s Napa Valley, Chris Howell admits that more work has to be done to remove the stigma that non-vintage wines still face.
“Why are we so obsessed with single vintages? We need to change drinkers’ perceptions. Non-vintage wines can be delicious.“
Dawn Davies is a master of wine, a holder of the global wine industry’s top qualification. She says that there are three types of wine buyers, two of whom will welcome more non-vintage still wines.
“The general consumer won’t notice,” she says. “The drinkers who buy a bottle up to the £15 mark, they just pick up a bottle of, say, sauvignon blanc. They don’t think ‘oh 2021, that was a good year‘.
“And, at the top end, people engaged in the wine industry or those more informed, they know what is happening with tougher vintages. And they welcome the increased flexibility and consistency that non-vintage wines can offer the winemaker.
“Then you have the drinkers in the middle who shout about different vintages. There will always be this group of people who don’t accept change in wine, such as the introduction of screw caps.
“But most wine, the vast majority, is a blend, as very rarely do you get a wine from a single barrel. Instead wines are blended from different vineyards or plots. So what’s the difference if you blend from different years?”
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