The Bitter Taste of Climate Change: How Heatwaves are Reshaping the World's Most Exclusive Drink Climate change is forcing the champagne industry to adapt its traditional winemaking techniques, resulting in stronger, more sugar rich champagnes.
For the first time ever, French producers have been granted permission to bottle wine with an ABV above 13%, thanks to record breaking heatwaves and droughts that have caused grapes to produce unusually high levels of sugar.
This shift is not just a matter of adjusting recipes or tweaking production methods; it's a fundamental redefinition of what champagne means.