What will global droughts and heatwave do to your wine?

Wildfires, droughts, and floods now more frequent and intense than before have certainly affected crop quality across the globe, especially in Europe, which hosts some of the oldest and most traditional vineyards in the world. Winegrowers have made some changes to adapt to the climate crisis but will your wines be the same owing to these changes?
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Representative Image.

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KEY HIGHLIGHTS
  • Wildfires have taken a large portion of vineyards in Australia, Europe, and California.
  • Unprecedented floods have also washed away the vineyards.
  • Not just the blaze but the smoke is also affecting the flavour of grapes and subsequently the wine.

Just ten years ago, severe, crop-destroying weather events were regarded as an anomaly, an oddity of sorts. Today, they are commonplace. We are getting closer to the point where we won't be able to make any wine at all in the vineyards as each year goes by.
The explanation, of course, is the climate disaster, which even obstinate self-styled sceptics in the UK found difficult to dismiss as they withered in the summer's 40-degree heat. The effects on vineyards are already visible globally and they are expected only to grow in the future.
Many climate change models predict that the average temperatures will spike to 1.5 degrees over the pre-industrial levels as soon as 2030. Extreme wildfires resulting from droughts and intense heatwaves destroyed thousands of hectares of vineyards and wineries along with homes in Australia, California, and parts of Europe this year, The Guardian reported.
The most well-known wildfire in Europe this year tore across a pine forest in the Gironde region of southwest France, endangering ancient grapes in the Graves and Sauternes districts of Bordeaux.
In the end, the fires didn't quite reach the vineyards, and even the very real possibility of smoke taint, the undesirable smoky flavour given to the wine by maturing grapes trapped in clouds of smoke, was averted because of the wind's direction.
Wildfires now increasingly common have affected as much as 80 percent of the French crops in recent years. But they are not the only culprits; the devastating floods in Germany’s Ahr Valley also wiped out many vineyards.
Needless to reiterate, the droughts of Europe have also reduced crop yields this year.
So, what is the solution? Some winegrowers have started growing grapes more suited to warmer temperatures or finding cooler sites to grow the grapes, like higher altitudes. However, this will still affect the mode of your favourite drinks.
These changes might be stylistic, taste-wise. However, the real question is how long will even these substitutions survive?
The nature of wine might be inconsequential in the larger picture when it comes to the other more scary effects of global warming, however, it is quite exemplary of the change on the ground due to the climate crisis.
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