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How Climate Change Will Make the Global Wine Shortage Worse

Say it ain’t so! A Morgan Stanley study warns that the world is facing a wine shortage, with global consumer demand already significantly outstripping supply.

A 5 percent decline in production in 2012 is blamed for “the deepest shortfall in over 40 years of records” (about 300 million cases). 

The drop in production is largely attributable to unstable temperatures in western Europe and Argentina. And as climate change deepens, it is likely to get worse. Another study from earlier this year warned that climate instability will cause a sharp fall in production in several traditional viticulture regions–including Bordeaux in France, Tuscany in Italy, and California’s Napa Valley.

Can other regions fill the winemaking gap? That remains to be seen. It is believed that higher-altitude, higher-latitude vineyards will benefit from changing climate conditions. But so far, other producers aren’t making up for the production lag in Europe, which supplies 60 percent of the world’s wine.

(h/t Salon)

Photo via BBC News

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