WINE & CLIMATE CHANGE - A HOTTER EUROPE BANS SUGAR IN WINE. AFTER ALMOST 40 YEARS, THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION MAKES A HISTORIC PROPOSAL TO BAN SUGAR

Possibly one of the only positive consequences of climatic change may be a historic ban on adding sugar to wine in order to increase alcohol levels. A recent confirmation by the European Commission on wine market reforms, which has proposed putting an end, after 40 years, to a practice that really only fools consumers and with the increasing general rise in temperatures no longer has any justifications. It is a technique that is allowed in Northern European countries like Germany, Austria and in northern France, but is banned in Mediterranean countries and in Italy, which won a battle against a “wine cellar scam” due to a sharp distortion in competition. The proposal to abolish adding sugar to wine occurs almost 40 years after the initial authorization by the European Union in the 1970’s.
The climate’s temperature shift to the north has modified the cultivating conditions of continental Europe, with vineyards that now produce grapes with higher sugar content, fundamental for the alcoholic fermentation that produces wine. But this is not the only effect climate changes have had on agriculture.
In Italy, 2007 has been the warmest winter in the past two centuries according to data from the Cnr Institute of Science and Climate (which has recorded meteorological phenomena since 1800), verifying an increase of 1.79 degrees over the preceding maximum temperatures reached in 1990. For the first time in history, fava beans were harvested in February in the countryside around Rome and - according to agricultural association Coldiretti – it is also possible to find a variety of Italian produce that has never been seen before during this time of year: from peas to artichokes, to all types of salads, cauliflower, asparagus, fennel and even tomatoes.
And on the structural side of things, there is a significant change occurring among traditional cultivation zones and areas. Olives, for example, are now growing at the foot of the Alps, while at the Swiss border sorghum is being cultivated, and peanuts are growing in the Po Valley, where the climate has also become favorable to large scale production of tomatoes and wheat.
Again according to Coldiretti, these are processes that represent a new challenge for agricultural enterprises that must interpret the change and effects on agricultural cycles, the management of water and security of the territories. The climatic changes also include a higher frequency of extreme seasonal changes and occurrences like short and intense rain storms, higher risk of late freezes, higher rates of fungus infections, the increase in insect populations, and the decrease in water reserves.
This is a situation that increases the risk of desertification, demonstrated by Apat data that claims 36% of the entire Italian territory is considered in medium to high risk of desertification, while half of the entire island of Sardinia and the region of Calabria are already considered in critical situations. Interventions like maintenance, saving and recuperation and recycling of water, infrastructural reorganization, information campaigns and education on limiting water use, creating low consumption irrigation systems, as well as furthering research for the development of crops that need less water are the next necessary steps to take.