Climate change: 'We're making wine in Norway'

The Norwegian winemaker talks to his grapevines.

You need to have a connection with them. There was 3 cm of snow when I woke up. I told them that it would be nice in the afternoon.

The plants are growing at 61 degrees north of the equator, far away from the optimum latitude for wine production.

Climate change is pushing vineyards further north and south.

The trends are clear according to Dr Greg Jones, who is the owner of a winery in the US.

A lot of our cool climate limits have changed. They went further north in the northern hemisphere and further south in the southern hemisphere.

Bjorn and his partner Halldis run the furthest reaches of the new limits. The vines grow on slopes which catch the sun while facing snow-capped mountains.

He remembers the fjord freezing over in winter when he was a child, but he says that never happens now. Over the years, he has noticed other changes in the weather.

I can see when it is raining, but it is warmer when it is warm.

He acknowledges that climate change is helping him as a wine producer, even though he is worried about the state of the planet.

It is still a challenge to produce wine in the far north.

It takes a lot of hard work and dedication.

I do everything for my babies. I will stay up in the night to help them survive if there is a frost.

He works with a variety of grapes to create blends that have tropical notes and he says comes from the clay soil.

This far north has a special quality of light.

There is a lot of light here. That is our advantage. We have chilly nights. The sun is reflected from the fjord into the hillside.

The grapes, the leaves and the skin absorb a lot of aromas and we take them out again to make nice wines.

It is not easy to convince people that Norwegian wine is worth sampling.

We have some people telling us not to tell anyone, but I have never tasted a wine like this before. It is the best I have ever tasted.

They don't dare to tell it when they go back to Germany or other countries because they want to mingle with the society within wines.

If the judging is blind, he thinks he will only stand a chance of winning an international medal.

If they knew the wine came from Norway, they wouldn't like it. They have to taste it and you will get what you deserve, I think.

They plan to go commercial this year. They still have a lot to prove, but they believe they are forging a new wine-making frontier in Norway.

We have established a winegrowing team here. We will probably have a wine district within five or 10 years because it is only 20,000 vines.

Climate change may be providing an opportunity for producers in previously unchartered territory, but it is also providing a serious challenge for those in more established wine-making regions.

I did an analysis of 25 of the top places in the world, growing grapes, looking at their long term historical temperature data, and every single place warmed during their growing season. There were no places that were not warm during the winter.

Sally Evans is the owner of Chateau George 7 in Fronsac.

We have had three spring frost periods in the last five years. They had not had one for at least 20 or 30 years. Extreme weather events seem to be more and more common. That is difficult.

She says global temperatures can be tasted in a glass of wine.

When the fruit is young, there is more sugar in the grapes, which makes for higher alcohol when you ferment. Over the last 30 years, the alcohol in wine has increased.

The sun and the warmth affect the wine's acidity. You need the acidity for freshness.

She says that hot, dry summers can affect the flavour of fruit.

Sally says that the new grape varieties will take a generation to grow and mature.

Pruning late to avoid Spring frosts and managing the leaf canopy to shade grapes from the hot sun are some of the ways winemakers are adapting.

She says consumers and producers will have to accept that some established wines will have a different character in the future.

In terms of quality, what is typical in 30 years may not be worse, but it may not be the same as a wine now.

She says producers need to adapt to climate change.

In the next five or 10 years, I think we will see how that is impacting people and their livelihoods here in Bordeaux.

The latest edition of The Food Chain has more on the impact of climate change on wine producers.