Why drinks like prosecco and Guinness are at risk from climate change

Heavy rains, droughts and storms exacerbated by climate change are putting making the production of traditional alcoholic drinks more difficult.

Weather changes aggravated or made more frequent by climate change are endangering some of Europe’s favourite alcoholic drinks. 
Heavy rains, droughts and storms mean heritage products like wine or spirits will start to taste different or might disappear altogether. 
Producers are experimenting with ways to protect crops or alter recipes, but there might not be a solution for every alcoholic beverage at risk. 
From prosecco in Italy to Guinness in Ireland, here are the drinks in danger from climate change. 
Prosecco is a sparkling white wine produced in northeastern Italy’s mountainside vineyards.
But grape yields are dwindling, devastated by a deadly combination of extreme weather and soil degradation.
A new analysis – published in the iScience journal last year – describes the harvest as “fragile and under threat.”
Sudden, intense rainfall events trigger sudden soil erosion and “slope failures” – when the earth slides away – in the steep vineyards of Valdobbiadene and Conegliano where the highest quality prosecco is produced.
Drought is another issue, making crop irrigation extremely difficult.
The unstable weather – triggered by climate change – could reduce the Italian wine grape harvests by up to a fifth, producers estimate.
Pálinka is a traditional fruit brandy that has been produced in Hungary since medieval times. 
The beverage is protected as a geographical indication of the European Union and only fruit spirits mashed, distilled, matured and bottled in Hungary can be termed pálinka.
The most common fruits used are plums, apricots, apples, pears, raspberries, blackcurrants and cherries, but some of these are becoming increasingly difficult to grow. 
According to climate experts, weather changes in Hungary are endangering fruit crops like raspberries and blackcurrants. 
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Dominant western winds are growing weaker while weather conditions from the north and south are arriving more frequently. 
As a result, young fruit freezes on the trees in spring while crops have to contend with extreme drought in summer.
Some producers have trialled planting late-blooming trees to avoid May frosts, but this gives the pálinka a different taste. 
Other distilleries have made the more radical decision to experiment making pálinka with kiwi fruit, which Hungary’s changing climate now allows farmers to grow. 
The great British pint might be a thing of the past as the climate changes. Warmer and drier weather is damaging the growth of hops, which give beer its bitter taste. 
Scientists are working on generating climate-change-resilient varieties of hops to prevent the drink’s demise. 
“Without it, the British pint is going to die off,” Danielle Whelan of the Shepherd Neame brewery told the BBC.
“We are just going to be importing beer and we won’t have the culture that goes with it anymore.”
Hop yields across Europe could decline by as much as 18 per cent in Europe by 2050, a research team from the Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Cambridge University estimates, meaning beers on the continent are also at risk. 
Diageo Plc is the world’s biggest spirits company and is responsible for producing beverages including Tanqueray gin, Guinness beer and Baileys Irish Cream.
Michael Alexander, global head of water, environment, and agriculture sustainability at Diageo, told Time that the company is concerned about water scarcity for production. 
Water makes up over 60 per cent of spirits and more than 90 per cent of beer.
The drinks group operated from 43 sites around the world in water-stressed areas last year.
“You could be with the most efficient brewery or distillery in the world,” Alexander told Time. “But it’s still not going to mitigate your risk if there’s a drought.”