Greenpeace says French wine is at risk without climate pact

Rising temperatures may have a devastating effect on the way French wines are made, destroying the industry.

By Agence France-Presse

Mon, Aug 10 2009 at 8:00 PM EST

GLOBAL CHANGES: French wineries need ambitious climate change goals from all countries in order to survive. (Photo: ZUMA Press)

French wines, the country's pride, are looking at a grim future failing an ambitious deal on climate change at the upcoming United Nations summit in Denmark, 50 top chefs, winemakers and Greenpeace warned Tuesday.

"Climate change has made vines increasingly vulnerable," the group said in an opinion column in the daily Le Monde.

"Wine," they added, "is the result of an alchemy between a native soil, or terroir, and generations of winemakers. Today this alchemy is in danger."

Because of the global rise in temperatures, French wines "now have a higher alcohol content, their texture is heavier, there is too much sun in the range of flavours, our wines could lose their souls," the column said.

If nothing is done to reduce carbon emissions, the world map of wine would be changed forever with the country's vineyards moving 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) south by the end of the century, they warned.

To survive, French wines needed an ambitious deal by developed nations to reduce carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2020, said the group, which includes chefs Marc Veyrat and Jean-Luc Rabanel and sommeliers Franck Thomas and Antoine Petrus.

"We urge the president and environment minister of the world's top wine-making nation to act with exemplarity at the Copenhagen talks" in December.

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