Global warming is fast becoming a concern for the wine industry. But while traditional wine-growing regions might only yield raisins in 30 years' time, other areas around the world are starting to embrace viticulture.
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Grape expectations: the world's northernmost wine regions
Are you in the mood for a climate change Chardonnay? How about a mercury-rising Rioja? Wine regions which thus far were ignored are beginning to realize their stock is rising, as global warming is changing viticulture.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Freidberg
Germany: Saxony-Anhalt
German wine is a bit like Marmite: you either love it or hate it. But there's more to than just Moselle Rieslings to savor. In east Germany, there's a whole northern wine region in Saxony-Anhalt, the Weinstrasse Saale-Unstrut, stretching along a 70-kilometer (43-mile) route. Thus far, it is officially considered the northernmost wine route in Europe. But climate change is bound to change that.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Schuler
Germany: Föhr
The North Frisian island of Föhr, which is less than 40 kilometers (25 miles) away from Denmark, has a population of 8,500. Surrounded by the sea breeze in all directions, the local Riesling varietal known as Johanniter thrives in the rough local climate, yielding various white wine products, including a sparkling Brut. What's nicer than to be stuck on an island with an infinite supply of wine?
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/C. Rehder
Belgium
The stellar reputation of Belgian beer is well-known throughout the world. But what about its grapes? The country's wines actually date back all the way to Roman times. Today, the one remaining wine castle in Genoels-Elderen, is proud to continue this age-old tradition, with its Chardonnay giving the French neighbors a run for their money. If you prefer red wine, you can try their Pinot Noir.
Image: picture-alliance/J. Tack
England
The UK is the second-largest Champagne export destination in the world. Brits just love their bubbles in a coupe glass. However, winemakers in England are increasingly perfecting the art of bottling their own sparkles using the same methods used in France's Champagne region. RidgeView Wine Estate in Sussex (seen here) is a UK leader, having won 51 medals and 12 trophies around the globe.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/C. Wiig
Scotland
Scotland's vines are so eager they grow on the walls of the nation's famous castles. Indeed, it's not all about whisky in Scotland, as the Celts are increasingly trying their hand at ciders and wines as well. But is it the next Loire Valley? Critics say that Scottish wines are largely undrinkable, but with climate change continuing on its path this might soon change.
Image: picture-alliance/J. Moreno
Sweden
Sweden's alcohol industry is controlled by a government monopoly, which is not allowed to advertise booze. This is why the country's wines have not really been heard of much even within the country. But with wine tasting being a popular social activity in Sweden, the word is getting out on quality wines from vineyards such as Astad Vingård, about 500 kilometers (310 miles) west of Stockholm.
Image: picture-alliance/Alexander Farnsworth
Norway
Lerkekåsa Vineyard near Norway's Flatdal region prides itself as being the most northerly commercial vineyard in the world. It's located at about the same latitude as Anchorage, Alaska. The biggest grape varietal grown here is the Solaris, which is particularly cold-resistant, but the company is experimenting with about 20 other grapes now — thanks to global warming, of course.
Grapes don't actually grow in Iceland — yet. But one winemaker tried to invent a brew that looked and tasted just like real wine — but the product was apparently a flop. Made from blackberries, blueberries and rhubarb, Kvöldsól was packed with anti-oxidants but sadly had to be discontinued recently. Perhaps in future years with rising temperatures, Iceland might grow real grapes and try again.
Image: Imago/PEMAX
Canada
About a 5-hour drive northeast of Vancouver lies the stunning Okanagan Lake with its wine-growing valley. Wines from this region used to ambitious and somewhat experimental at best. Nowadays, with the effects of global warming playing out, the harvest season is long enough to even grow Merlot and pure-breed Chardonnays. Move over, Napa Valley. This is North America's new grape on the stock.
Image: picture-alliance/C. Robidoux
Crimea
When Donald Swann and Michael Flanders wrote "Have Some Madeira, M'Dear" in 1959, they most certainly weren't picturing the green pastures of Crimea. The Russian-occupied region has a wine history that dates back to Czar Nicholas II. Benefiting from the mild climate of the Black Sea, Massandra Madeira is said to have been served at the Yalta conference in 1945. Or so we hear through the grapevine.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Mokrushin
Russia
Russia's Belgorod Oblast dates its affinity for wine back to the late Middle Ages, claiming that Turks and Tatars first noted the fact that the region would lend itself to growing grapes. In the 19th century, French settlers arrived to help cultivate grapes bringing their know-how from Bordeaux and Burgundy with them. You can clearly ditch your Russian vodka for wine here.
Image: picture-alliance/N. Gyngazov
Russia: Siberia
In Siberia, which has a reputation for permafrost, there's a long tradition of people harvesting and fermenting grapes. In 2009, a local family decided to take this to the next level, cultivating wine on an industrial scale to produce the first Siberian wine for a mass market. Their two main grapes, Pinot Noir and Muscat, are harvested on an area of eight hectares, producing 50,000 bottles a year.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Freidberg
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According to Roman legend, Bacchus, the Roman god of wine, traveled as far as India to learn everything about the craft of harvesting grapes. Today, however, such tropical climates can increasingly be found in the least expected of places, allowing oenophiles to sample grapes from such atypical places as Scandinavia and Siberia.
The main reason for this change is global warming, which is not only challenging farmers in Europe's traditional wine regions to seek ways to make their harvest more heat and drought-resistant, but is meanwhile also moving the Arctic tree line farther north in general.
In other words, people are increasingly using previously barren land to try their luck at agriculture, including the cultivation of grapes. The United Nations has even predicted that viticulture as a whole in the Northern Hemisphere might move an average of up to 111 miles (180 kilometers) farther north compared to where grapes are growing now. If this trend continues, it could spell financial ruin to long-established wine businesses, while presently less likely areas could economically benefit from diversifying into the wine market.
And indeed, this trend is already manifesting in places like southern England, Sweden and Canada, where vineyards are popping up, winemakers are trying new varietals and methods and the traditional wine industry is beginning to notice some steep competition.
Old wine in new bottles
While wine growers in places like southern France, the Iberian Peninsula or even in South Africa are nervously biting their nails while trying to adapt to a climate-changed future — for instance by planting more resistant grape varietals or using slopes they had not previously considered to provide a suitable terroir for growing grapes — newcomers in the wine business elsewhere are slowly perfecting the growing of vines in previously ignored and neglected regions. Areas that previously were at best an afterthought are suddenly beginning to make waves.
There's even an annual wine award for "Cool Climate Wines" established by the Polish Czas Wina wine magazine in 2004. While there are hardly any truly Nordic nations among their 2019 winners' list, the competition does feature bottles from less likely wine regions such as Romania, Poland, the Czech Republic and several German wines. In the US, wines from northern states like Minnesota or South Dakota are beginning to draw the attention away from the American wine staple of Napa Valley.
Even in Germany, where traditional wine regions like the Moselle and the Ahr valley have a long-standing tradition for white wine, red grapes are also being introduced into the mix. Meanwhile, new vineyards keep springing up in unexpected and positively northern parts of the country as well, such as the North Frisian island of Föhr, which borders Denmark, or in the Uckermark region, 100 kilometers (62 miles) northeast of Berlin. And even Scandinavian nations and Russia look as if they're on track to swap their vodkas for Viognier. That's climate change in a bottle.
Learn more about some of the northernmost wines of the world by clicking through the gallery above.