Will Climate Change Spoil Your Chardonnay?

By Robert Lalasz
The Nature Conservancy

Climate has a huge impact on winegrowing — affecting everything from harvest quality and quantity to whether a vineyard can produce delicate whites or fruit-forward reds.

So it's no surprise that the winegrowing industry is taking steps to adapt to the affects of climate change. But some of those steps might further endanger Earth's Mediterranean habitats — where much of the world's wine is produced and which are already some of the most threatened habitats in the world.

"Some farms are buying land upslope at higher elevations, or are moving toward cooler microclimates near coastlines in order to adapt to warming trends," says Jeffrey Parrish, director of global Mediterrnean habitats for The Nature Conservancy.

"Those moves have profound implications for Mediterranean nature if these vineyards are moving into unspoiled habitat."

Indeed, eight acres of Mediterranean habitat — which occurs in California, Chile, South Africa, Australia and the Mediterranean Basin region — have already been destroyed for every one acre that has been protected.

(Continued here. Go here for the entire series by The Nature Conservancy entitled "Wine, Climate Change and Mediterranean Habitats".)