An age-old cross-channel rivalry between the English and the French has heated up. This time, it's in a battle to produce the world's best sparkling wine. Only 88 miles, as the crow flies, separate the two competing regions but England’s more northerly climes have been too cool to grow the requisite grapes, until recently. With a little help from our greenhouse gas emissions, one southern England winery won the only international competition to judge Champagne against other sparkling wines. Yet, growers in Champagne are quick to claim that, overall, they too have benefited from the increased warmth –- thus far.
There is, of course, a cloud behind this silver lining, as Faun Kime reports. What climate change giveth in warming, it also taketh away, in many other ways. The difficulties of growing grapes are mounting in both regions and the French, unlike the English, have nothing short of their economy riding on the well being of their wine industry.
These videos were co-produced by The Daily Climate and Public Radio International. Faun Kime is a California-based filmmaker and journalist currently working on series about how climate change is impacting the lives of the rich and famous. She's also a broadcast radio reporter for PRI's The World. In the past, Faun has story-produced for network reality television, directed and produced the full feature documentary, The Tomato Effect, and worked as a general assignment, broadcast television reporter.
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