Higher temperatures and extreme weather episodes are devastating harvests.
By Lesley Stahl
Broadcast Journalist
CBS News
What are the signs of global warming? Glaciers are melting at an increasingly rapid pace. Persistent droughts are spreading. And we have another to tell you about – wine.
Farmers who grow the grapes have seen the effects of climate change in the soil, in the roots of the vines and the yields of their crops.
France, a major center of winemaking for centuries, is experiencing increasingly higher temperatures and extreme weather conditions that have damaged vintages, and livelihoods; last year was particularly dramatic.
France recorded its smallest harvest since 1957 and lost more than $2 billion in sales – a huge blow to the country’s second-largest export industry.
And, as we first reported in December, it’s hitting nearly all the winegrowing regions where they make dry whites, fruity reds and fizzy champagne.
All bubblies are called sparkling wine. But champagne is made here and nowhere else –
in these vineyards and villages of Champagne located in northeastern France. There’s a mystique to champagne, an aura of romance. Coco Chanel once said, “I only drink champagne on two occasions, when I am in love and when I am not.” They’ve been producing this “wine of kings” here for centuries.