Friday, February 22, 2013

Australian wine industry leading way on climate adaptation

Alina Eascot and Clint Jasper in ABC News (Australia): A study has concluded many McLaren Vale wine producers are leading the world in preparing for future climate change.

It compared the region on Adelaide's southern outskirts with a French wine region, Roussillon, because of their climatic similarities. Co-author and Adelaide University lecturer Douglas Bardsley said the average rainfall of both regions was expected to decline in the future, but average temperatures would climb.

He said McLaren Vale growers and winemakers were taking important steps to ensure they remained viable. "They're trying new varieties, varieties from Spain for example which might be more adapted to a future drying climate," he said.

"Different types of irrigation regimes, the different ways of harvesting, of mulching, the different ways that they prune the plant so that berries are shaded during the very hot times of the day. Other agricultural industries and regions could learn from these activities."…

A vineyard in the Barossa Valley, shot by Amanda Slater, Wikimedia Commons via Flickr, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license

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