Climate change a mixed blessing for UK winemaking
Climate change is a mixed blessing for winemaking in the UK, with productivity under threat from extreme weather episodes, according to a new study.
Rising temperatures have often been viewed as beneficial to the fastgrowing wine industry in the UK, but research undertaken at the University of East Anglia (UEA) suggests that yields can vary significantly, with a move to Champagne grape varieties exacerbating the trend.
‘We found that, while average temperatures over the growing season have been above a key minimum threshold for “cool-climate” viticulture for two decades, wine yields vary considerably,’ said lead researcher
Alistair Nesbitt, from UEA’s School of Environmental Sciences.
‘Producers recognised the contribution of climate change to the sector’s recent growth, but also expressed concerns about threats posed by changing conditions.’
Short-term weather events, such as sharp frosts, cold snaps and torrential rain, ‘will continue to threaten productivity’, says the report, which looked at the relationships between temperature, rainfall, extreme weather events and yield in key UK winemaking regions.
Wet and cold conditions during flowering and poor summer weather result in particularly low-yielding vintages, such as the washout year of 2012. Increased plantings of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay – usually grown to produce English sparkling wine – are also more susceptible to poor weather conditions than traditional UK grape varieties.
In Decanter’s 2015 winemaker survey, 58% of those polled said they’d felt the effects of climate change, which ‘had been a challenge to manage’.