Published 28 December 2011 at The Conversation.
By Leanne Webb
As the climate gets warmer, growing conditions and ripening times of crops will be affected. This raises all kinds of challenges for food security, but as we hit the festive season you may also be wondering what it will do to your wine.
In the Northern Hemisphere, researchers have analysed historical records of the start dates of winegrape harvests in Burgundy, France. They have found that in warmer years and periods winegrapes tend to ripen earlier in the harvest season.
In Australia this trend to earlier winegrape vintages has also been detected. A recent continent-wide study assessed the vintage records from 44 vineyards across 12 Australian winegrowing regions, with one case stretching back for 115 years and several others for over 50 years. The study found a trend to earlier maturity of winegrapes through time in 43 of the 44 vineyard blocks. These changes are associated with warming trends in the respective regions.
Continue reading this article at The Conversation.