As the climate warms, New Zealand winemakers grapple with a changing landscape

A vineyard in Otago, New Zealand. The planet’s southernmost wine growing region was previously considered too cold chardonnay. Photograph: Eddy Dallimore/Getty Images/iStockphoto

At what point is a Marlborough sauvignon blanc so sweet it no longer tastes like a Marlborough sauvignon blanc? That is one of the questions that New Zealand winemakers are grappling with as the country experiences an increasingly warm, dry climate.

Winemaker John Hancock says the timing of the grape harvest in New Zealand has shifted as the climate has changed.