Posted on 09/06/2009 5:15:33 PM PDT by Cincinna
Christine Vernay was on holiday in Missouri when she got the call. It was August 12 2003 and the French vineyard owner was not due to return home for 10 days; the harvest on her Rhône valley estate would begin in late September. But then a friend from the same village, Condrieu, called her husband’s mobile phone. “The grapes have ripened early. You need to come home now,” he said.
France was sweltering in the most extreme heat wave on record. Christine and her husband, Paul Ansellem, caught the first flight back but by the time they reached the vineyards most of the grapes in their 18 hectare estate had shrivelled on the vine.
Instead of rows of plump, light golden fruit, the couple found shrunken berries, burnt brown by the sun.
“We’d never seen anything like it,” says Christine, a 52-year-old mother of two, who took over the renowned Vernay estate from her father in 1997.
(Excerpt) Read more at ft.com ...
“So, in compensation for the carbon tax, how about a tax rebate on wine consumption? “
*** FRENCH POLITICS AND CULTURE PING LIST *** FREEPMAIL ME IF YOU WANT TO JOIN ***
from Art Goldhammer’s French Politics
http://artgoldhammer.blogspot.com/
Climate and Wine
The French wine industry is threatened, many wine growers feel, by climate change. France’s culture de la vigne is as much an accident of geography as a product of history. For millennia the French climate has been perfect to support a variety of grapes. We have heard for years about the threats to the industry from globalization, but now the globalization menace has a new dimension: other regions may benefit from climate change as France suffers. This year’s unprecedented heat wave is taken as a case in point: it has been hard on the vine growers. Such heat waves are expected to become more frequent as the planet warms.
They can move to Seattle then. 50F and rain -- I don't recall having to don sweats this early (we usually leave the heat off and the windows open until sometime in October).
Then again, we don't want more libs. In general, conservatives think and liberals feel. Explains much.
stop global stupidity.
Probably because they weren't around in 970 A.D.
Climate change, just plain natural fluctuations can have devastating effects on the micro-climates that make french wine so extraordinary.
Wine is a major part of French culture, but also a mainstay of french agriculture and the export economy.
Individual vintners are wise to be concerned.
But remember,one bad year does not a catastrophe make.
L
That should read “French whine-makers...”
Time to stock up.
In fact, wine grapes didn't return to the region until a gentleman named Merlin replanted them some time in the 600s. He'd earlier replanted the grapes in Brittany upon his exile from what was rapidly becoming known as England (due to Angle and Saxon invaders ~ and those folks just red like bunnies doncha' know).
Bingo! I learned a lot of respect for French wines on recent visits — the generic table-wines I encountered there were rather a bit above the wines I encounter here (my Scottish blood is not ready to spend on the pricey stuff, wherever it comes from).
Their crappy over priced product is the problem, not AGW.
You are so right on that one! Long live Greek and Balkan wines. Perfection in so many ways.
Socialists always have an excuse for their failure to perform.
Makes me wonder about their vineyard management. Well managed vineyards take into account canopy (grape leaf cover for the grapes) as well as irrigation and watering scenarios.
California vineyards look forward to that last great burst of sunshine to ensure ripe fruit, proper sugar levels, balanced acidity, etc.
Californian, South African, Argentinian; the French have a real problem. But that problem is serious competition, not some made up “Climate Change” crap.
If any of this was real and actually believed, they would NOT have changed it from Global Warming to Climate Change... That says it all for me... When you don’t have a clue what is going to happen in the future, you call it climate change...
They do, but because they know they can't compete on a global scale anymore, they want some free money.
If that means climbing on the global warming bandwagon...so be it.
Thanks Cincinna!
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