Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Global Warming - Will the Yukon become the next Alsace?

This morning, Northwest Public Radio reported that a new study claims that global warming could hurt California’s wine industry. So, what will global warming mean for the state of Washington and its vineyards? The National Academy of Sciences predicts that as temperatures rise it could mean doom to the vineyards in California while Washington and Oregon will flourish.

They asked the right person to confirm this study, too. My "grape guru" and mentor, Stan Clarke confirmed this information. Stan says that the vineyards in Washington State will fair better than those of California. Stan also predicts that grapes from Washington State's Puget Sound Appellation, which is west of the Cascades, will increase. At this time Puget Sound can only grow a small number of grapes because of their cooler climate. However, the effects of global warming could make this particular appellation more like that of the Willamette Valley in Oregon.

Global warming could also make better growing conditions for the Columbia Valley and Walla Walla Appellations where historically we have damaging frost conditions about every seven years.

You can listen to this interview at:
http://nwpr.org/HomepageArticles/Article.aspx?n=2006

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the link. I hadn't seen this NPR story yet.

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