Climate change could wipe out red wine by 2050

London: Clarets may soon become a thing of the past, as they have joined polar bears, glaciers and icebergs on scientists'' extinction risk list because of global warming.

Experts said the steady rise in temperatures threatens the vineyards around Bordeaux producing some of the most esteemed and expensive wines on earth.

By 2050 the region may be unsuitable for winegrowing at all, making chateaux such as Lafite, Petrus and Latour redundant and their supreme wines mere memories, said experts.

Previously, Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine reported that winegrowers are already switching to heat-resistant grape varieties as a precaution.

“The most pessimistic scenario says that the climate will no longer be suitable for Cabernet and Merlot wines by the middle of the century,” the Daily Mail quoted Jean-Pascal Goutouly, a wine expert at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research in Paris, as saying.

“The pessimistic scenario indeed shows that Bordeaux''s climate, by 2050, will no longer favour Cabernet and Merlot the backbone varietals of the region''s red wines,” said Goutouly.

Bordeaux winegrower Philippe Bardet added, “If climate change comes quickly, things will get difficult for all of us. If it comes slowly, we will adapt.”