Here we are:
Climate change could devastate US wineries
By Randolph E. Schmid, AP Science Writer | July 10, 2006
WASHINGTON --Climate warming could spell disaster for much of the multibillion-dollar U.S. wine industry.
Areas suitable for growing premium wine grapes could be reduced by 50 percent -- and possibly as much as 81 percent -- by the end of this century, according to a study Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The paper indicates increasing weather problems for grapes in such areas as California's Napa and Sonoma valleys.
The main problem: An increase in the frequency of extremely hot days, according to Noah Diffenbaugh of the department of earth and atmospheric sciences at Purdue University.
Grapes used in premium wines need a consistent climate. When temperatures top about 95 degrees they have problems maintaining photosynthesis and the sugars in the grapes can break down, Diffenbaugh said in a telephone interview.
[...]
James A. Kennedy, a professor of food science and technology at Oregon State University, said he was shocked by the report on the potential effects on wine grapes.
"We're definitely, in the wine industry, starting to be concerned about global warming," said Kennedy, who was not part of the research team.
"The lion's share of the industry is in California, so it's a huge concern from a wine quality standpoint," he said. For people in the industry "this paper is going to be a bit of a shocker."
This is what it's going to take for legislators to take seriously the threat of global warming: the bottom line.
And it's an interesting paradox for Republicans: Keep the liberal elitist wine industry afloat, or let the profits from it go off to the French. Or worse yet, the ultra-liberal Swedes or Norwegians (after the warming)!
Seriously, though, if the U.S. wine industry is threatened, so too must U.S. agriculture in general be threatened. We would be in a bad way indeed if we began having trouble growing corn and wheat.
NOTE: If you would like to use this space to suggest some good wine finds, while the industry still exists, I'm not going to stop you.... (I'll throw in Chateau La Paraza Minervois: Nine bucks, and it's a terrific spicyish variation on something like a Beaujolais. Or how about Chateau Ste. Michelle Riesling out of Washington? Again, nine bucks, and less sweet and fruitier than an Alsace riesling; great porch wine for a summer day.)
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