O PIN I ON
Andrew Jefford Wine writer Andrew Jefford reflects on the challenges facing wine producers in these extraordinary times and what we can do to help
What can wine drinkers do about the climate crisis?
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any wine growers endured a uniquely difficult year in 2020, beset by weather hazards, trade-war tariffs and the multiple disruptions caused by Covid. Some – in South Australia, in California – have lost vineyards, wineries and homes to the natural disaster of wildfires, and spent much of the last 12 months struggling with insurers, picking through burnt ruins, and wondering how to start again. Every crisis, though, offers the chance of change. How might we re-set our wine world?
Wildfires have proved devastating in South Australia and California, where vineyards, wineries and homes have been lost. 26 | SPRING 2021
Not in isolation, of course. The interconnectedness of the issues which face us is plain. Atmospheric carbon dioxide recognises no borders; it is the human load on the planet (an eightfold increase in the last 200 years) and our newly acquired hyper-mobility which makes pandemics likely, while sheer pressure of population feeds back into
