14 DAY TRIAL // Forget about rising sea levels, massive storms, and the hardships that stand to make polar bears in the Arctic go extinct. As it turns out, climate change and global warming are likely to deliver one mind-bogglingly heavy blow that we will not easily recover from.
Long story short, experts warn that, all things considered, these two ongoing phenomena have high chances to leave us without some of our favorite wines. Thus, certain wines could disappear altogether, and others stand to drastically change their flavor.
What does climate change have to do with wine making?
In a recent study, wine specialist Kimberly Nicholas with Sweden's Lund University explains that certain grape varieties are having serious trouble coping with the environmental shifts brought about by climate change and global warming.
Consequently, wine makers have no choice but to quit growing and harvesting them, and turn their attention to other varieties that are more resilient. The thing is that, due to this shifts, certain wines are having their flavor drastically altered.
“Climate change is beginning to affect the singular flavors that people expect from different wines - the experience you come to know and trust from your favorite reds and whites,” said researcher Kimberly Nicholas, as cited by DM.
What's interesting is that some wines risk having their favor altered even if their makers decide not to switch to other grape varieties. This is because, due to climate change and global warming, grapes are growing at a different pace than they used to.
This means that wine makers cannot quite figure out when best to harvest them to maintain the flavor of the beverages obtained from them. What's more, evidence indicates that, when grapes become ripe too fast as a result of an increase in the temperatures they are exposed to, their color changes.
As Kimberley Nicholas put it, “As the atmosphere warms, the desired ratio of acid to sugar occurs earlier in the season. The optimal flavor moment may occur earlier too - but not as much - leaving a gap between the ideal sugar-to-acid ratio and the ideal flavor.”
It is believed that wine makers in France, Italy and Spain are the ones most likely to have their working agenda turned topsy-turvy by climate change and global warming. Still, the wine making industry in America stands to be affected as well.
Mind you, corks aren't safe either
In another study, researchers show that, all things considered, climate change and global warming have high chances to force wine makers to turn to plastic and metal stoppers to cap the bottles they make and market. This is because the trees whose bark is used to make corks risk being affected by these phenomena.
More precisely, evidence at hand indicates that climate change and global warming can alter the chemistry and the resilience of the tree bark used to make corks. Consequently, perfectly good wine bottles can end up being ruined.