Galicia's wine producers to benefit from global warming 03/03/2008 00:00

Wines are among the few Galician products that will benefit from climate change.

3 March 2008

MADRID - Wines are among the few Galician products that will benefit from climate change. Scientists meeting Friday in Santiago de Compostela for an international congress on global warming and agriculture said that rising temperatures, which are already "evident," will improve the quality and variety of the wines produced in this northwestern region.

This is one positive aspect among many risks. Climate change has already introduced insects and diseases more typical of Africa than of this green, rainy region, and the abundance of fodder that Galician farmers traditionally enjoyed has been dwindling.

Francisco Díaz-Fierros, a professor of edaphology - the study of how soil influences living things - said that Galicia's grape harvest has jumped from October to early September in some areas, benefiting vines by minimising the risk of rain damage. In vineyards devoted to Ribeiro wine, the surface area could double due to improved environmental conditions. In O Barco in Ourense, the climate will be favourable to producing quality red wine.

[Copyright EL PAÍS 2008]