Climate change and winegrape quality in Australia

Abstract

Various agricultural sectors are likely to be sensitive to projected climate change. Winegrapes are particularly sensitive to climate change because of the intrinsic link between the climate and the characteristic and often unique quality of the resulting wine. Here we present results from a study exploring the impact of projected climate change on the Australian wine industry. In the present study, impact models based upon existing viticultural and winegrape market data are used to estimate how projected regional temperature increases might affect the winegrape and wine industry throughout Australia by 2030 and 2050. The effect on winegrape quality is determined for different premium winegr..