French Winemakers Face A Demand Crisis, Not A Climate Crisis
A recent article from The Globe and Mail (G&M), “In French wine country, climate change and dwindling demand are a recipe for trouble,” claims that ‘climate change’ is harming French wine production, with market changes coming in a distant second. This is exactly reversed
While drought and heat waves impact grape production and yield, wine has persisted through many changes in average global temperature over thousands of years. Market forces are actually the main driver behind the French wine slump.
This summer’s heat and drought in Europe caused grape crop losses in France’s wine regions, especially in Bordeaux, where wildfires also destroyed some vineyards.
The G&M attributes this weather to ‘climate change’, but as Climate Realism contributor and meteorologist Anthony Watts explained in “Wrong, Newsweek, Europe’s Heat Deaths Are a Policy Failure, Not a Climate Failure,” persistent, severe heat waves are far from unprecedented in Europe.
In addition, as discussed in another Climate Realism post, recent wildfires are not historically unusual in France, with no data showing a sustained increase in acreage lost over time.
Wine is grown in regions that are hotter and colder than Bordeaux. Temperature affects the fruit’s sugars and tannins, but winemakers have dealt with bad weather for as long as wine has been produced.
According to United Nations data, global climate change is not harming global grape production, and the data do not indicate that the French climate is spiraling out of control.
Only a long-term trend of persistently bad weather would suggest this year’s drought and heat are ‘climate change’, yet no such long-term trend exists. This year’s bad weather was just that: a bad weather year, something French grape growers have experienced hundreds of times before over the centuries.
Just three years ago, French winemakers were upset because they produced more wine than they could sell, and they lost hundreds of millions in destroying the excess. Obviously, having more wine than patrons want to imbibe isn’t a problem caused by ‘climate change’, and low-production years aren’t either.
As G&M admits, France has steadily reduced grape production since peaking in the 1970s. Production peaked in 1979, when many scientists worried about global cooling, with some warning of a possible looming ice age.
Buried several paragraphs deep, G&M makes the devastating admission that “consumption has fallen by 14 per cent since 2018, largely because of shifting social habits,” and “annual consumption has fallen from more than 100 litres per adult in 1960 to less than 20 litres today.”
These significant changes have damaged the wine industry over time much more than occasional bad weather. For smaller winemakers operating on slim margins, market forces combined with a bad season can be devastating.
Another economic issue G&M briefly mentioned is that “the cost of fuel and other farm supplies has doubled in the past couple of years.”
That problem would only be exacerbated if climate alarmists have their way regarding ‘fossil fuel’ use. Fuel costs greatly impact food prices, but especially wine. Wine requires energy for processing and storage.
Packaging wine in bottles usually relies on ‘fossil fuel’-powered machines. Energy costs also [heavily impact glass and cork prices], making those supplies more expensive.
At the consumer level, the costs add up even more because of shipping. Higher [wine prices for a product people consume less only worsen the situation by further suppressing demand].
As one wise interviewee remarked: “You need to adapt to the climate. You need to adapt to the market.”
The wine market has significantly contracted over the past couple of decades. This is obviously bad for winemakers and wine drinkers, as lower production usually also means higher prices.
Changing drinking habits among Americans and Europeans alike are driving the decline in wine sales that G&M bemoans.
By contrast, contrary to G&M’s claims, no evidence or data shows ‘climate change’ is to blame for that contraction, even if winemakers experience a poor producing year due to bad weather.
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