Global warming threatens French vineyards but could it mean we can grow grapes here?
LAST SUMMER, a group of leading French chefs and sommeliers wrote an impassioned open letter to President Nicolas Sarkozy, warning him that climate change could wreck French wine: “As flagships of our common cultural heritage, elegant and refined, French wines are today in danger . . . our wines could lose their unique soul.”
They were concerned that even a 2 per cent change in global temperatures would push the ideal zone for wine-grape production 600 miles to the north. So while the vineyards in Bordeaux would alternately frazzle and wilt under freak heatwaves and hailstorms, could a newly balmy Ireland prove to be the ideal spot for a new generation of world class wines? Could Cork or Kilkenny be the new Côtes du Rhône?
One leading Spanish wine-maker thinks it’s a distinct possibility. Miguel Torres, of Torres wines, says that “temperatures have already risen by one degree; if they increase by five, southern Europe will be full of arid steppes and we could see commercial grape production in countries as far afield as Ireland.” And aspirant Irish viticulturalists can also take heart from the growth of the English wine industry, which in recent years has gone from national embarrassment to sparkling success – something that, it’s thought, is partly down to global warming.
There are 2,732 acres of vines under cultivation in England, which represents an increase of 45 per cent in the past four years. But in the not too distant future, the English could find themselves in the same position as the French,according to Julia Trustram Eve from English Wine Producers, “Some say by 2080 it will be too hot to grow grapes in southern England.”
Not everyone is ready to believe that Ireland is on the cusp of a wine revolution. Wine producer Michael O’Callaghan says he has not been able to make wine since the long, hot summer of 2006, and he holds out little hope of that changing any time soon.
According to O’Callaghan, the temperature needed for the blossom to set fruit is 19 degrees, and because of that he thinks that “it will be quite some time before you will see the countryside covered in vineyards”. But David Llewellyn, who produces four varieties of wine from his small terroir in Lusk, Co Dublin, isn’t convinced by the “19 degrees” theory.
“It’s not a true figure. Different types of grapes have different requirements – it very much depends on the variety.” Llewellyn insists that creating an Irish vineyard is by no means the impossible task that some might assume: “There are probably enough south-facing garden walls and house walls in Ireland to meet the whole country’s wine needs if they were all planted with vines.”
For those eager to give it a try, Llewellyn says that Madeleine d’Angevine is the best grape for growing outdoors in Ireland – deliciously sweet and juicy when ripe, it makes a pleasant white wine.
And there are tantalising signs that change is already underway in the world of Irish wine. Neal McAlinden, of Direct Wine Shipments in Belfast, says, “I was in Dublin recently for a wine tasting and a guy took a Cabernet Merlot blend made in Wicklow out of a suitcase. I couldn’t believe it, I thought someone was taking the mickey.
Normally you need the climate of Bordeaux for that kind of wine.” McAlinden has also heard of an aspiring vineyard owner who has bought a likely looking plot of land near Ballymena, Co Antrim, ready to take advantage of Ireland’s warmer climate in 15 or 20 years’ time.
But there’s hot – and then there’s too hot. David Llewellyn believes that the five degree rise mentioned by Miguel Torres would not only be unlikely but highly undesirable. “Even the worst doomsday predictions talk about a rise of just two degrees.
“If it were five, we might be able to grow grapes here, but the entire human race would be threatened with extinction. Making wine in Ireland would be the least of our worries.”
