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Date: Wed, 21 Dec 2011 18:51:20 +0000
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Often Repeated Story of Medieval Wine Growing in England as a "proof" of warmer times
To: [log in to unmask]

Hello All,
I think you will find that is why they produced mead more than wine per se. Near to me in North Oxfordshire (actually less than a mile away) there was until recently a vineyard but because the EU forbid any expansion of the number of vines allowed (to control over production and more likely to protect the French producers) they had to close down. The vines have since been grubbed up. However the wine produced was apparently very nice despite the winters and the wet summers. I can only think it was down to a particular variety that allowed them to produce wine. Yet there is also plenty of historical evidence to suggest that wine was produced even as far North as Yorkshire. Fountains Abbey I believe had vines growing there.
Anyway what we grow today is treated with chemicals to keep the moulds at bay and they are probably wrapped in fleece to protect them in the winter so it is probably proof of hardiness of the vines to our particular weather. (We don't have climate here. Only weather. :) )

Kev C

On 21/12/2011 17:32, Oliver Tickell wrote:

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Interesting story, but surely not conclusive as regards your thesis, as there are (broadly speaking) two factors to consider:
1. How hardy the vines are to hard winter frosts.
2. How hardy the vines are to cool, damp, cloudy summers.

This story demonstrates, as you say, that there are vines capable of withstanding very hard frosts. But my suggestion is that those same vines may demand fairly warm, dry, sunny summers in order to thrive. The climate limit on vines in Britain may be imposed by the coolness of our summers more than by the coldness of our winters.

Oliver.


On 21/12/2011 15:46, Veli Albert Kallio wrote:

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Often-repeated Story of Medieval Wine Growing in England as a "proof" of warmer times is a spoof.
 
Here is an article about a wine variety that seems fine and well even temperatures down to -20C.
 
I have long time suspected that the idea of the Mediterranean (if not tropical) wine was a spoof.
 
Here there is report of traditional wine plant variety that survives easily down to -20C.
 
This supports idea that the medieval wines in England were adapted for the cold climate, not that the climate was near the Mediterranean ranges of temperatures in the Middle Ages as the climate change skeptics claim:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16267993