It used to be that vintners tried to shorten the seasons to harvest before destructive September rains lower sugar content and make grapes rot. Now vintners are struggling to delay the harvest, and rising global temperatures and drier summers are causing grapes to mature too quickly. If grapes don’t get cooler nights, you lose certain qualities of wine. Wine makers say if temperatures keep rising, we could end up in a world where wines taste more or less the same. To safeguard these qualities, vintners from around the world held an emergency conference in Barcelona two weeks ago. As vintners seek new ways to protect their grapes, they also need to reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions.
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