Global Warming: Heating that Wine in Your Goblet

Looking ahead, who knows what the future will bring; that’s part of the beauty of life - for better or for worse.  One thing’s for certain, however (besides death & taxes): global warming.  We’ve all heard about the effects it will have should we decide not to take action and try to reverse it, but how many of you have thought about how it could affect the world’s grape population – and therefore the wine in your goblet? 

In short, along with rising temperatures would come grapes with a higher sugar content, which in turn would produce wines with a higher percentage of alcohol, making for bigger, bolder wines.  When grapes ferment, their sugar is converted to alcohol, and so when a grape is left on the vine longer (and is therefore riper and contains more sugar), it yields a more alcoholic wine, for there is more sugar to be fermented in these grapes.  Today, many winemakers decide to make wines with a higher alcohol content and therefore manipulate both grapes and harvest times to ensure the production of such “hot” wines.  Pleasing to many people’s palates, these wines are becoming ever more popular and common, but rising temperatures would mean more and more wines with a naturally higher alcohol content.  It would be nice to have some say in the matter and not be destined to a life of drinking only bold, highly alcoholic wines, wouldn’t it?  After all, sometimes after a long day of work (or of finishing up taxes right at the deadline, for that matter) some people are in the mood for something a little more smooth and subtle that will help them gently ease into the evening.

Enough with the lesson; now scamper off and enjoy that bottle you’ve been meaning to open – and don’t forget to recycle it when you’re done.