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Battle for the bottle THE heatwaves and drought are threatening this year’s wine harvest in Spain. An exceptionally hot summer has left grapes withering on the vines with many winemakers choosing to bring the harvest forward by at least a month. The vendemia (grape harvest) usually takes place during September but many have decided to start picking in August. Yields are expected to be down by an average of 15% to 25% depending on the region.
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Vol. 5 Issue 137 www.theolivepress.es August 12th - August 25th 2022
Sea threat
See page 12
THE heatwaves of the summer aren’t only taking their toll on land where wildfires have ravaged more than 230,000 hectares already across Spain. Temperatures are also rising in unprecedented levels in waters off the Spanish coast, posing a threat to marine life. In some areas of the Mediterranean off the Spanish coast, temperatures reached above 30ºC during the latest heatwave. Waters off Spain’s eastern and southeastern coasts and around the Balearic Islands are between 2.5ºC and 4ºC warmer than usual this summer,
reaching 30ºC in some places. These sudden, atypical spikes in temperature – which come on top of the long-term trajectory of the oceans warming – have disastrous consequences for aquatic fauna and flora. Aemet warned that the rise in water temperatures can lead to the proliferation of algae in coastal waters as well as a rise in jellyfish blooms. The warm sea temperature also brings an increased risk of storms with sudden torrential downpours likely to occur when cooler temperatures roll in.
Scorchio!
Positive Grapes will be smaller but some winemakers believe this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. “We will have fewer grapes to pick but it will have a positive effect on the markets because the wine will be better quality and at a good price,” says CasTM tilla La Mancha Agriculture Minister Francisco Martinez. Spain’s olive groves are also struggling with warnings that By Fiona Govan harvests will be massively reduced pushing up prices of oil. SPAIN has suffered its hottest July Meanwhile, the country’s on record. corn, wheat and barley crops S u bcould j e fall c t by ast much o c 13% o n d i Official t i o n data s . shows E n the d s mercury 3 1 / 1 2 / 1 9 . as soaring to nearly three degrees this year, with prices inevitaabove the average of the last 60 bly rising. years, when records began. The country’s temperature for the 21/6/19 13:30 month was 25.6 degrees, according COPING: to AEMET, the national meteoroChildren in logical office on Monday. Madrid deal with the heat It makes it 2.7ºC higher than the average from records dating back to 1961. Predictably, the hottest place July 9 until July 26, was described in the country was Moron de la as ‘the most intense, the most exFrontera, in Sevilla province, tensive and the second longest’ in where the dials hit 46ºC on July history. 24 during the second heatwave of It has also been one of the driest JuDYING FOR A DRINK: Grape harvests threatened the summer. ly’s with the least rainfall in the last The period, which sizzled from 15 years.
It was three degrees above the average as July temperatures soar to an alarming new record
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drought, Spain is suffering nearly its worst year of wildfires on record. Some 240,000 hectares had already been scorched in more than 370 blazes by the end of July. Meanwhile, water levels in reservoirs are worryingly low, although Baleares reservoirs are fuller than in the rest of Spain. According to official data, island reservoirs were at 53% of capacity in June compared to the national average of 40% But not all the islands are so well off - Formentera has just 37% of capacity filled. The figures for Menorca and Home delivery Ibiza are 50% and 59% reServicio a domicilio spectively.
Alarmingly, the months of May and June were also the warmest on record, with AEMET warning that summer seems to be starting a month earlier than it did six decades ago. As a result of the extreme heat and
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Palma’s de Mallorca reservoirs are at 57.1% of capacity - much better than June 2021 when they were at 34.75% capacity. One of the worst hit regions is Andalucia, where reservoirs sit at just 28% capacity, some 7% below where they were this time last year. Opinion Page 6