Now that Hull is the ‘new Bordeaux’, could we all be quaffing Cotes de Yorkshire?

Climate change is redrawing the map of where vines can grow, but, says Rosamund Hall, winemakers should be more imaginative with their products rather than purely following the sun

Wine can sometimes be like a stubborn toddler who point-blank refuses to do what you ask them, even though you know it’s what’s best for them. It’s been kicking around as a product for millennia, being enjoyed as part of everyday life. And during this time, it has undergone huge expansion and growth – with vines planted globally between the latitudes of 28 and 50 degrees in both the northern and southern hemispheres.

Production boomed in the late Seventies with more than 10 million hectares of vineyards, and it’s estimated that there are now approximately 7.3 million hectares under vine. But, for such a globally available product, wine is appallingly marketed. It is so difficult to determine quality just by looking at a bottle, and the industry itself frequently demonstrates great inflexibility to both consumer trends and external factors such as climate change.

The first annual Fine Wines and Restaurants Market Monitor report, written by the consultancy firm Bain & Company and published this week, predicts that in the not-too-distant future, Bordeaux, in the southwest of France, will be too hot and dry to grow the world’s most popular red grape, cabernet sauvignon – the variety that really exalted Bordeaux to its superstar status.

The report states that wine production will have to move north, taking in Germany, southern Scandinavia, northern France, and, of course, England. It predicts that by 2100, the most northerly point in England that will support the production of cabernet sauvignon will be just north of the Yorkshire city of Hull. A glass of Cotes de Yorkshire, anyone?

I believe that the challenges currently facing wine should be seen as a great turning point in its history: one where it embraces innovation. If we take Bordeaux, it has historic examples of transformation – the area that is now home to huge swathes of vineyards, the Medoc, was mostly marshland until the 17th century, when the Dutch came along with their water-draining knowhow. It transformed production and sealed the future for this wine-producing behemoth.

These days, Bordeaux is a region that’s suffering from overproduction, with far too many growers producing mediocre wine under the “quality” banner of Bordeaux. But why? It’s largely due to a system that was set up to protect growers, the French certification known as the Appellation d’Origine Controlee (AOC), which was developed in an effort to guarantee that the wine on the label was the same as inside the bottle. Oh, and there’s a bit of grower entitlement, too.

The AOC has strict regulations about what grapes can be used, the age of vineyards, and the maximum yields that can be produced. It is very much focused on protecting the uniquely French notion of terroir, which literally translates as “a sense of place”. Terroir refers to a unique combination of environmental factors – including climate, soil, and topography – and the influence these have on the taste and character of a wine.

While this has been remarkably effective in protecting wine, it hasn’t always been a guarantee of quality, as the focus is on the land, not the grower.

It might seem controversial to say, but there are a lot of people who shouldn’t be making wine. Usually, market forces drive quality, but this has often not been the case with wine, as for too long, producers have been able to hide behind a label that affords them the perception of quality, and this definitely hasn’t helped consumers (but perhaps that is a topic for another day).

What wine really needs to do is be more adaptable, and innovate. We have just started seeing intercontinental blendings such as The Wine Society’s Generation series, in which wines from France and Australia are blended together – as a sidenote, they were both delicious – but the winemaker, Maxime Chapoutier, would have been arrested if he had tried to sell these wines in his native France.

And then there’s one of the tastiest wines I’ve tried recently: a blend of two grape varieties, mondeuse (in this case from the eastern French Alpine region of Savoie) and merlot grown in Bergerac (a region on the fringes of Bordeaux). In this vinous union between two winemaker friends, the lighter, fresher mondeuse really took the edge off the heat of the merlot, which had been produced in a particularly hot vintage. I loved it, and was left wondering why we’re so fixated with wines having to have a singular origin.

I am not proposing the abolition of the AOC. I think it’s a remarkable system, and it should protect those wines that are just so uniquely of one place – it’s a wonder and joy for any wine lover to enjoy wines made in these regions by outstanding growers. But, in order to attract and embrace a new generation of wine drinkers, with the concomitant change in preferences, perhaps instead of expanding wine production to Hull, growers should be more pioneering in the varieties they’re planting, and the blends they’re bottling – and focus more on sustainable viticulture. And while we’re at it, can we please see more 50cl bottles? It’s the perfect size in my opinion.

I would also love to see an expansion of winemaker collaborations, with high-quality, good-value producers coming together to create wines that can help to grow new markets – they could even offer a competitive advantage in the race to make it onto the shelves of the supermarkets. There’s one thing I’m certain of, though, as a half-Yorkshirewoman: the future of wine is unlikely to lie in the “Entre-de-Humber” – sorry, Hull.

Rosamund Hall (DipWSET) is a freelance writer, presenter and The Independent’s wine columnist. She specialises in wine and spirits as well as travel and lifestyle