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Global Warming Helps British Wines
Posted by perle0 on 2006-06-13 12:03:07
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[News]
[England] |
 As with every disaster, global warming does have one good side-effect: the increasingly warmer temperatures make for much better wines from England's little-known wine industry.
While England has in recent years had good results with white wine, whose grapes can thrive in cooler temperatures, the climate didn't have the sun and warmth to make good red wines. That's changing as temperatures rise worldwide, bringing the English countryside longer, warmer summers that are resulting in decent English red wines for the first time. |
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Denbies Wine Estate, with vineyards on the hills of the North Downs near Dorking, Surrey, won a Seal of Approval for its 2003 vintage pinot noir at last month's International Wine Challenge, one of the first ever awards for an English red. It beat scores of other wines from established growing regions like southern Europe, South America and Australia.
Chris White, general manager of Denbies, said warmer summers meant growing grapes for red wine was becoming easier in Britain.
He said: "You can't produce good wine without good grapes. With white wines you can get away with a higher acidity, but with red you need the grapes to be riper which needs the temperatures to be higher....
In 2003 we had a higher sugar content than they had in Bordeaux, and a natural alcohol content in the wine of 12.5 per cent, which is unheard of in a British red."
Now if they can just keep Britain's coastal cities, like London, from being swallowed up by the rising sea levels as the glaciers melt, the British at least may be toasting the climate change with fine English claret. |
More details. |
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