FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Food

How Climate Change Is Totally Going to Mess with Your Mimosa

By the looks of it, producers in France’s Champagne region won’t be popping any bottles in celebration this year, as there may not be enough bubbles to waste on acts of extravagance so closely associated with their product.

Climate change ain't all bad. As we've seen, it might actually be good for certain winemakers.

Regions like Wales and Quebec, once thought of as too cold to accommodate any decent-tasting grape, may soon be home to more complex Vitis vinifera like pinot, cabernet, and chardonnay. But dramatic changes in climate are not the best thing in regions that have been making wine for centuries.

And by the looks of it, producers in France's Champagne region won't be popping any bottles in celebration this year, as there may not be enough bubbles to waste on acts of extravagance so closely associated with their product.

READ MORE: Climate Change Might Be Good For Quebec Winemakers

Short of locusts, the region has been hit by almost every sort of imaginable natural calamity that can keep winemakers up at night, according to Decanter. From frost to hailstorms to rot to mildew; one would think that Champagne growers have pissed off the God of the Old Testament to incur such a brutal year.

Eric Rodez, winemaker at the family-owned Champagne Rodez in Ambonnay, told Decanter that this season has been the most complicated in six decades. In fact, late frosts this spring caused some local winemakers to lose as much as 70 percent of their harvest and mildew is attacking upward of 65 percent of the crops in the area. And it's not just the Champagne region that's undergoing meteorological shifts; weather is affecting everything from Chablis prices to Burgundian buds.

But this most recent news means that Champagne producers will have to dip into their strategic reserves in order to keep up with the global demand for baller bubbles, all of which has Decanter throwing around the dreaded "S" word—shortage. And there's nothing baller about running out of Champagne.