Extreme weather pushes viticulture into colder northern territories and forces traditional winemaking regions to adapt. Wines from northern climates are emerging as serious contenders, while regions like Bordeaux and Rioja are grappling with hotter weather, overripe grapes and water shortages. The shift is forcing the wine world to rethink long-standing assumptions about terroir — the interplay of soil, climate and human craft that has defined wine’s identity for centuries.
Europe’s past climatic stability allowed the concept of terroir to flourish, elevating wine from a commodity to an expression of place and culture. But global warming has irrevocably changed this. “If you love Bordeaux wines of the 1970s, those are gone forever,” says Elizabeth M. Wolkovich. “We don’t get to have the climate we had in the 1950s... so we don’t get to have the wines that people loved of that era”.
 Rising temperatures have brought forward the veraison, when grape skins mature from green to yellow or purple, prompting growers to harvest earlier. A database of harvest dates from Beaune in Burgundy dating back to 1354 reveals that, since 1988, harvests in the region have occurred on average 13 days earlier than the prior historical baseline.

1. How climate change is redrawing Europe’s wine map (Financial Times)
2. Poetry is Growing in our Garden, Anders Frederik Steen
3. Chardonnay grape