Lifestyle

Climate change is coming for your champagne

Zero drills here. Sparkling wine — both cava and champagne — is in danger of losing its distinctive flavor and fizz because of climate change, and things are about to get really real.

According to new research, rising global temperatures in Europe will lead to warmer and drier conditions. This means the grapes will ripen faster, which could negatively affect the flavor and aroma of the varieties used for bubbly.

Specifically, the new study in Agricultural and Forest Meteorology looked at grape varieties in northeastern parts of Spain, which is famous for producing cava, consisting of a blend of white grapes grown natively that are renowned for their creamy, rich taste.

Producers are being forced to pick the grapes earlier, which inevitably changes the quality of the world-famous Catalonian wine. An earlier ripening period makes the beverage less acidic and more sugary.

Researchers used rainfall data between 1998 and 2012 and created mathematical models to predict how three varieties of grapes used in making cava — Macabeo and Paralleda from Spain and Chardonnay from France — would be affected.

Italian winemaker Michele Reverdito told The New York Times, “Nebbiolo [the grape used to make barolo] means ‘the wine of the fog’ because you picked the grapes in November. Now we pick in September. The world is changing.”

Grapes in the France’s Champagne wine region that help create the beloved drop are being harvested two weeks earlier than they were 20 years ago. They’re also bigger in size and have more sugar, which turns into alcohol during fermentation and makes the drink more alcoholic.

If temperatures rise by as much as 5 degrees by the end of the century, as some models predict, “it could change the fundamentals of the grape varieties,” Thibaut Le Mailloux of the Champagne Committee, a trade association, told The Telegraph. “It is absolutely essential to start research now because in 25 years it will be too late.”

The committee is working frantically with researchers to develop new grape varieties and hope to have four or five approved for champagne by 2030.

The only upside? The warmer temperatures are taking English sparkling wine from strength to strength, meaning the Brits could be here to save Happy Hour, bottomless brunches, and boozy midweek book club for everyone.