Australian Wine 2007 Vintage: Dry, With a Hint of Disaster

Australian Shiraz and other inexpensive, but high quality wines have become staples in American wine shops over the past several years, but a persistent drought could drive up the price, as the volume of grapes harvested has fallen by half. The smaller, but intensely flavored grapes left on the vine will also result in changes to the flavor of this year's vintage — in general by adding sweetness, and taking away acidity, according to The Australian. Taste-wise this may not be a bad thing but overall, the effects of the drought are wreaking havoc on many of our beloved winemaking grapes. Worse still, experts now are hypothesizing that Australia's drought is being caused less by cyclic El Nino patterns in the Pacific than by global climate change — meaning there's no end in sight to the nation's agricultural woes. Already, leaders have declared a crisis, as wheat, grape and other crops wither. It's another sign that global warming will have unexpected and potentially serious consequences. While the price of wine alone isn't reason enough to curb greenhouse gas emissions (well, maybe) protecting the world's agricultural regions from climate-induced disasters is clearly important.

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