Are vine-growers climate change skeptics? The effects of climate change analyzed by vine-growers and wine-makers in Anjou and Alsace protected designations of origin (France)

Abstract

Researchers have emphasized an acceleration of the temperature increase since the mid 1980s and published alarming forecasts regarding the vine and wine production, most of all in wine areas with Protected designations of origin (PDO). Nonetheless, since the end of the 1990s, enquiries have shown a relative indifference of farmers and vine-growers towards climate change, although one would see them at the front stage regarding climate change. We have tried to better understand this apparent climate scepticism by enquiring amongst vine-growers, wine-makers, vintners and some of their institutional partners, in two French PDO vineyards so as to gather their point of view on the on-going climate change. Results are more or less in line with former studies. However, while the interviewees agree with the researchers in listing some important changes in the grapes and wines, they do not attribute them to climate warming but instead to the technical change and the yield reduction that have spread amongst the French vineyards since the mid 1980s. This discrepancy can be first related to the special emphasis they put on practices, and their ability to deal with the yearly climate variations. Yet the divergence can also be related to the framing of the problem. While climate researchers endeavour to recognize amongst the multiple changes, the changes they infer from climate change, the actors deal with the wide series of observed changes and causes, which they try hard to manage altogether.