Climate change affects more European wine: in Italian vineyards, two degrees more since 1980

One of the most worrying matters of the world of wine is linked to the intensification of climate changes. Mutations which affected the cycle of vineyard, favored the onset of illnesses, and, therefore, the production is hardly tested, firstly in volumes, but also from a qualitative point of view. But, wine is produced (almost) all over the world, and climate is different from zone to zone, as well as its effects. But, the certainty is that climate change had a significant impact on vineyards, those European (the “king” continent for wine production as much in value and volumes with France and Italy respectively leaders, ed), firstly. Also a study carried out by an international research team coordinated by the University of British Columbia, in collaboration with Inrae and Institut Agro, published on “Plos”, states that.
A work which focused on climate changes starting from 1950, and on their specific impact on wine regions all over the world. The aims of researchers were two: understand and “quantify” climate change in different vineyards present in the various parts of the world, and evaluate how genetic diversity (grapes variety) influenced the observed change. To do that, they considered, in their analysis, the genetic diversity in vineyards, 500 grape varieties calculating factors such as the temperatures during budding in the seasonal period of growth, and temperatures and rainfalls around harvests. The study revealed that climate change already impacted all wine regions mainly in terms of registered temperatures. However, this impact wasn’t detected as uniform among regions.
The most evident change was observed in European vineyards where the number of hot days (during which the maximum temperature at the shadow overcomes 35 degrees) and indexes such as maximum temperatures of growth season (from budding to harvest) were much higher than anywhere else. In France, for example, daily maximum temperatures during the season of growth increased by three degrees since 1980, while, in Italy and Spain, the increase was about two degrees. These levels are lower in other world regions, it is the case of the United States, japan, and South Africa where maximum temperature increases of the season of growth remain lower than a degree.