IT HAD looked like the best news in years, but the suggestion by a leading Spanish wine maker that climate change could make Ireland an ideal location for future operations has been questioned by an Irish producer.
Miguel Torres of Torres wines had said climate change was already forcing companies like his to buy land up in the Pyrenees “just in case”. “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,” he said.
A grower and a scientist however have left us sucking grapes of wrath. Michael O’Callaghan, Ireland’s most successful winegrower, said he thought it would be a very long time before the climate here would allow for extensive wine production.
“I have not been able to make wine since the great summer of 2006,” said the Corkman who supplies his wine to Longueville House in Mallow. “I have had to move into apple production and now make calvados, the apple brandy called Eden, which is a commercial success,” he said.
He said the main problem in growing grapes for wine in Ireland was the temperature needed for the blossom to set fruit was 19 degrees. “That is difficult to achieve and I think it will be quite some time before you will see the countryside covered in vineyards.
“A few others who used to grow vines here have stopped,” he said.
His view was shared by Teagasc head of research Frank O’Mara.
“It is unlikely to happen in my lifetime,” he said. “We are very unsure what the patterns will be like, but I find it difficult to envisage widescale wine production here because of climate change.”