What is climate change doing to wine? In the ARD series "Weltspiegel", journalist Friederike Hofmann searches for answers in the Languedoc wine-growing region of southern France. In the process, she comes across dramatic conditions. But not all winegrowers surrender to fate.
Less and less wine is being drunk. Which is a problem. But the bigger problem: there is more and more heat and drought in the south of France. This poses huge problems for the local winegrowers. Is wine in danger?
In the just under 45 minutes of the current edition of the documentary series "Weltspiegel", this impression quickly emerges. Where once important rivers had a water level of two and a half metres in winter, today there is drought. The season is starting far too dry, reports a winegrower, and groundwater reserves are worryingly low. The consequences of climate change are hitting the region around Narbonne particularly hard. There, the drought is more extreme than ever before.
France is the land of wine, of joie de vivre, of relaxed living between pleasure and culture. But can this be maintained under these conditions? One winegrower, for example, broke with tradition there and invested a lot of money in an irrigation system - and was successful. But this raises new questions: Will there even be enough water for such projects in the future? Because the area of irrigated vineyards has quadrupled since 2010 - to 40,000 ha by now.
A winegrower in the Corbières region, on the other hand, relies on biodynamic viticulture. His reason for working this way sounds a little esoteric at first: "These are things that don't necessarily need an explanation," he says, for example. But a few weeks later his answers sound far more factual, given the circumstances. But even biodynamics cannot help him if the water is missing. "We will have to adapt," he explains.
At a family winery, the consequences of climate change are causing existential worries. The winemaker is already the fifth generation to run the winery, but he will soon no longer be able to pay his apprentice. Already 10 percent of his vineyards had to be abandoned because of the lack of water. "If the drought continues, we will have to close down," he fears. "If we can't grow grapes, we'll have to plant cacti." It's no joke - nothing else grows there in these conditions.
Where do we go from here? Hofmann and her team find many answers here from vintners, scientists, cultivation experts and in Europe's largest wine laboratory. Each of the vintners interviewed is working with his or her own ideas and possibilities. Some with success, but all with uncertain prospects. It is a worthwhile three-quarters of an hour that shows: "There will continue to be wine in the South of France. Just different than before."