美国国家公共电台 NPR Climate Change Ripens Prospects For German Winemakers

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

All right, thousands of politicians and scientists are wrapping up a climate conference in Germany. Maybe on the way out, they'll stop through wine country. And if they do, they'll find new varietals made possible by climate change. Here's NPR's Daniella Cheslow.

(SOUNDBITE OF MARCHING BAND MUSIC)

DANIELLA CHESLOW, BYLINE¹: The annual winemakers parade is underway in the riverside town of Bernkastel-Kues in southern Germany. And it's full of people in costumes from the Middle Ages. Here's the medieval knight² with his sword. There's a woman here wearing a fox draped around her neck and drinking out of a black horn. This is a folksy throwback of a parade. But it's also evidence of a winemaking heritage that goes back hundreds, if not thousands of years celebrated³ in this annual festival.

(SOUNDBITE OF DRUMMING)

CHESLOW: That heritage is changing. This year was the earliest wine harvest on record. The parade route is in a village nestled between steep hillsides carpeted in vines. One of those plots belongs to your Johannes Selbach.

JOHANNES SELBACH: We've been on the receiving end of the positive effects of the global warming.

CHESLOW: He gets out of the car and walks uphill between his trellises. They're heavy with green, speckled Riesling grapes. He breaks off a cluster and takes a bite.

SELBACH: Try this here.

CHESLOW: That's gentle.

SELBACH: There's sweetness, but there's good acidity⁴ and not thick, sweet sugar. And that's why we want to go early.

CHESLOW: By go early, he means picking the grapes a month ahead of schedule. In the past, German winemakers worried their grapes wouldn't ripen⁵ enough and would make for a thin, acidic wine. Some of them added sugar to boost the alcohol content. These days, the grapes are naturally sweeter because of the heat. Americans are the biggest market for Selbach's delicate, complex rieslings. And Selbach says he worries about his grapes getting too sweet in the heat, so he's buying land in the shade or on hilltops where they'll ripen slower.

ULRICH FISCHER: (Speaking German).

CHESLOW: That's Ulrich Fischer leading a wine-tasting session. He's drinking pinot noir, a red. That was once rare in Germany.

FISCHER: More sunshine, less rain.

CHESLOW: Fischer, a scientist at the Neustadt wine campus says this year, more than a third of the country's vineyards are planted with red grapes.

FISCHER: We could not achieve a pleasurable and nice decent red wine without climate change.

CHESLOW: He's researching how growers might cope with hotter temperatures - plant higher, keep some leaves on the grapes for shade, irrigate⁶ and try other varietals.

HEIKE DARTING⁷: I just have to work a bit here.

CHESLOW: Winemaker Heike Darting does that. She's pouring riesling along with glasses of pinot noir, Portugieser rose and sparkling blanc de noirs - all wines made from red grapes. I meet her at the world's largest wine festival, held in the German town of Bad Duerkheim. The festival takes place each year at the same time, early September. But the grapes - they have their own schedule.

DARTING: We are a little bit stressed out at the moment because our wine harvest started yesterday. Normally, I do the days; my brother does the nights here. And if there's harvest, my brother is harvesting and spending his nights in the cellar instead of being here. So I do nights and days.

CHESLOW: She's on a double shift presenting those red varietals that have become a new focus for the industry. Climate change may benefit Germany's winemakers, but they have to scramble⁸ to take advantage.

For NPR News, I'm Daniella Cheslow in Bad Duerkheim.

(SOUNDBITE OF BEIRUT SONG, "LA LLORONA")

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 knight   

n.骑士，武士；爵士

参考例句：

• He was made an honourary knight.他被授予荣誉爵士称号。
• A knight rode on his richly caparisoned steed.一个骑士骑在装饰华丽的马上。

3 celebrated   

adj.有名的，声誉卓著的

参考例句：

• He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
• The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。

4 acidity   

n.酸度，酸性

参考例句：

• This plant prefers alkaline soil,though it will readily tolerate some acidity.这种植物在酸性土壤中也能生存，但硷性土壤更加适宜。
• Gastric acidity would not prevent the organism from passing into the gut.胃的酸度不能防止细菌进入肠道。

5 ripen   

vt.使成熟；vi.成熟

参考例句：

• I'm waiting for the apples to ripen.我正在等待苹果成熟。
• You can ripen the tomatoes on a sunny windowsill.把西红柿放在有阳光的窗台上可以让它们成熟。

6 irrigate   

vt.灌溉，修水利，冲洗伤口，使潮湿

参考例句：

• The farmer dug several trenches to irrigate the rice fields.这个农民挖了好几条沟以灌溉稻田。
• They have built canals to irrigate the desert.他们建造成水渠以灌溉沙漠。

7 darting   

v.投掷，投射( dart的现在分词 )；向前冲，飞奔

参考例句：

• Swallows were darting through the clouds. 燕子穿云急飞。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Swallows were darting through the air. 燕子在空中掠过。 来自辞典例句

8 scramble   

v.爬行，攀爬，杂乱蔓延，碎片，片段，废料

参考例句：

• He broke his leg in his scramble down the wall.他爬墙摔断了腿。
• It was a long scramble to the top of the hill.到山顶须要爬登一段长路。