No limits?

You are standing on latitude 50. For wine growers this has a special significance since this latitude was long accepted as the northern edge of the quality wine belt. However, continuing global warming has shifted this edge further north. They are now planting temperature sensitive varieties in Germany that, up to now, were usually associated with French wine-growing regions.

Wine-growing and climate change

During the Medieval Warm Period, grapes had already made a move northwards, which was terminated by the Little Ice Age in the 15^th century. Back then, wine was grown from England to East Prussia. It took until the end of the 1980s until wine-growing jumped the English Channel once again. And there are already new attempts being made in Denmark, Sweden and even Norway.

“King Riesling” still dominates 80% of the wine-growing area in the Rheingau. Will the Rheingau soon replace the Bordeaux region as a première red wine producing area? The forecasts say that a temperature rise of one degree would push the northern edge of grape production 180 km further north. Red wine will become increasingly more important for the white wine producing regions in the future. The proportion of red wine grown in Germany has more than trebled in the last 30 years from 11% (1980) to 36% (2010).

More than this, the quality of the German Pinot Noir has also attained international levels. Since the beginning of the 1990s, it has been warm enough to allow even the demanding Cabernet Sauvignon grapes to ripen here.