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Changing Taste
Tue Jan 06, 2004
Listen in RealAudio 
Hi, I'm Bryan Yeaton with The Weather Notebook's weekly climate change story. A new study
suggests global climate change is affecting wine grapes -- and the proof is right there in
your glass. Chris Richard has more:
CR: Greg Jones makes his living studying and teaching the geography of agriculture at Southern
Oregon University. He's also a wine afficionado. Jones knows a good vintage when he tastes it.
And wine vineyards respond to the slightest change in temperature. So, Jones says it seemed
natural to study the correlation between temperature shifts and wine grape production over the
last half-century. The climate records were objective; they showed steadily warming
temperatures. For scientific neutrality on wine quality, Jones and his colleagues turned to
analyses by professional wine tasters.
GJ: Typically, we found a fairly strong signal of warming throughout all the best
grape-growing areas. We found that there was better wine quality and that the year-to-year
variation in quality was getting less.
CR: At Du Vin, a wine shop in Los Angeles, owner Rene Averseng agreed with Jones'
findings.
RA: The Beaujolais Noveau probably will be the best example of the Beaujolais Noveau on the
market ever. It is very lush. As well, some of the Rhone valley. Now, in some regions, there
was such a drought they had very little wine to make.
CR: Jones predicts increasing warming over the next 50 years. That will make some wine-growing
regions too hot, he says, but could help production in cooler areas.
Averseng says he'll keep that in mind, and will start paying closer attention to some German
vintages.
Chris Richard reports from Los Angeles. The Weather Notebook is supported by the National
Science Foundation and Subaru of America. Special funding for our Climate Change Series comes
from The New England Science Center Collaborative.
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