Climate change is turning the northern hemisphere into a viable wine-producing region – but how does the tipple measure up?
Stood on a finger of land pointing into the North Sea, the glass of bubbles I’m sipping fizzes as fervently as surf breaking on rocky shorelines and sparkles with more brilliance than the lazily setting sun.
As is the case across much of Scandinavia, long summer days allow grapes to ripen slowly across along Denmark’s Røsnæs peninsula, a 15km strip of marginal moraine created by glacial movements in the last Ice Age, forming a surprisingly productive terroir.
“As it turned out, this is actually a perfect spot for wine growing,” says Betina Newberry, co-owner of Denmark’s biggest vineyard, Dyrehøj Vingaard. “Nobody really knew that.”
An hour and 15-minute drive from the Michelin star-studded restaurants of Copenhagen, this slither of West Zealand has sparked its own epicurean revolution. Favourable conditions such as lower rainfall, more hours of sunshine and calcium-rich soils were enough to persuade Betina’s farming family to adapt their agricultural practices and switch to planting more than 30,000 vines.