http://www.indianwineacademy.com/item_1966.aspx
Whether it is toys, computers or silk sarees from India, China can make more and cheaper. Now Mother Nature is also benevolent. With global warming to its aid China is set to become a prominent wine producing country in a few decades.
Speaking at the Climate Change and Wine Conference in Barcelona which was reported in the previous issue of delWine, the Australian consultant on viticulture, Dr Richard Smart said: "In 30 years time, China will be a country better able to adapt to global warming." He was talking on 'global warming and its impact on vines and viticulture' at the conference.
Dr. Smart is already involved in advising Chinese investors looking to purchase suitable wine producing land and they are currently looking at an area close to Beijing.
Smart said that while China, currently 8th largest producer of grapes in the world is very wet near the coast and more arid towards the inland, would provide exciting opportunities in the future, going northwards.
Southern hemisphere regions like Chile, Argentina, Tasmania and New Zealand, as well as Northern Europe and even some parts of China are 'lucky', Smart suggested, as there was room for growers to move to cooler or higher areas to plant grapes.
Growing new varieties of grapes especially for hotter regions would be a crucial industry response to ongoing global warming, he said. Smart also suggested harvesting at night and the utilization of classical breeding rather than molecular techniques as a potential solution.
The conference kicked off with an address from Pancho Campo, President of the Wine Academy of Spain, and local politicians. A spokesman from the Catalan department of climate said, 'There is no point crying over spilt milk. We have to find solutions for our problems and that is exactly what we intend to do today."
President of OIV, the International Organisation for Vine and Wine, Peter Hayes said the challenges being posed by climate change to the wine sector were reflected across the world. 'I hope we might see action on regional planning" adding that it was a question of allocation of resources.'
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