UEA says climate change likely to increase UK's potential for wine
Temperatures over here are soon projected to resemble those in the famous wine growing regions of France and Germany
Last updated 12th Jul 2022
Climate change is likely to increase the potential for wine production in the UK, according to research from the University of East Anglia.
Temperatures and growing conditions over here are soon projected to resemble those in the famous wine growing regions of France and Germany
There's now more than 800 vineyards across the country, award-winning production and a transition towards more making sparkling wines, that's already grown over the last years, due to global warming.
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A team of researchers from the UEA, have now charted the potential for the sector over the next 20 years.
Drawing on the latest detailed climate projections, they can now effectively model and map the best opportunities for grape growing and winemaking, across country.
Their findings show how the climate of a larger area of England and Wales is projected to become suitable for reliably growing sparkling wine grape varieties, and how the potential for high quality still wine production is rapidly emerging.
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Lead UEA researcher Professor Steve Dorling, of the School of Environmental Sciences said:
“We’ve seen viticulture in the UK expand nearly 400 per cent from 761 to 3800 hectares between 2004 and 2021.
“Over that period the warming climate has supported much more reliable yield and quality of the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grape varieties – these varieties are blended in the production of champagne-style sparkling wine.
“Warm, dry UK growing seasons like 2018, with lower than average disease problems in the vines, led to production of a record-breaking 15.6 million bottles and these growing conditions have already become and are projected to become more common.”
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The Climate Resilience in the UK Wine Sector (CREWS-UK) project was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council as part of the UK Climate Resilience Programme.
The researchers considered how often growing conditions in the UK are projected to climatically resemble those seen most recently in famous sparkling and still wine producing regions in Champagne and Burgundy regions of France, and in Baden in Germany.
Their results highlight that since the 1980’s there has already been a warming of over 1°C during the growing season in much of south-east and eastern England, a shift which has been one of the key enablers for growth and variety change in the UK viticulture sector over this time.
The team used UK Climate Projections 2018 scenarios to assess future variety and wine style suitability in the UK, and potential for viticulture investments, sector adaptation and resilience over the period 2021–2040.
Areas in East Anglia are projected to have 2018 ‘conditions’ during 2021–2040 in 60–75 per cent of years, meaning the exceptional 2018 vintage will become more common.
Meanwhile large areas in south-eastern and eastern England are projected to come into a suitable range for still red Pinot Noir production. While Pinot Noir for sparkling wine is already successfully grown in the UK, the projected growing season temperature increases now indicate the new and increasing opportunity for still Pinot Noir production in some areas.
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However, the researchers warn significant challenges remain, arguing that the rapidly changing UK climate requires the industry to remain agile and not ‘lock-in’ to production which cannot adapt to the changing growing conditions.
Prof Dorling said: “There are exciting times ahead for the UK wine sector, but our results have emphasized the challenge of establishing wine identities and brands, in particular those tightly associated with varieties and wine styles, in a rapidly changing climate.”
In addition, British weather can still be unpredictable, as the 2012 vintage demonstrated when much UK grape production was lost due to the cool and very wet flowering period. Year to year climatic variability will remain, including early season frost risk, even if the longer-term trends are good ones.