The time & date in Clark, Philippines is

Lengthening seasons threaten Italian wine- 11June24

ROME, Italy ― The family of Alberto Marsetti has made wine in Valtellina, in the north of Italy, for at least six generations. So he noticed when things started to change.
“The watershed year was 2007,” Marsetti said. “That’s when we realized we had to stop thinking in terms of exceptional years and that it was ‘normal years’ that had changed.”
In the last two decades, Marsetti said, he had to adjust his winemaking to account for climatic abnormalities he attributes to global warning. Rather than a rise in average temperatures, earlier springs and warmer autumns made his grapes sweeter, leading to more alcoholic wines.
The phenomenon has been especially conspicuous in the hillsides around the village of Chiuro, where vineyards rise as high as 2,000 feet above sea level.
“Twenty years ago,” Marsetti said, “we struggled to get decent grapes from the vineyards at such an altitude. We used the grapes to make down-to-earth table wines, those you can have a couple of glasses of at lunch every day, not for the top quality wines.”
“Now, instead, we get medium- or high-quality grapes from there too, and the wines have become over 1 percent stronger,” he continued. Instead, vineyards downhill that used to make grapes for the best wines are experiencing problems, such as prolonged dry spells that can entirely change the quality of grapes.
The changes are happening all over Italy, said Domenico Bosco, who heads the wine producers division of Colidiretti, Italy’s biggest farmers’ association. Now the increase in alcohol content that results from the lengthening seasons is being seen as a problem.
“Until a few years ago,” Bosco said, “people thought that the more alcoholic a wine was, the better its quality.” In fact, winemakers responded to the demand from consumers for stronger wines by making their wines richer in taste and more alcoholic.
But this, warns Bosco, is now changing. Some consumers have started seeking out lower-alcohol wines for reasons of taste. Meanwhile, new laws in Italy and across Europe have clamped down on drunk driving and alcoholism. Producers, however, are struggling to adapt as forces beyond their control push their wine’s alcohol content up.
Barry C. Saiff suggested:
The suppression of free speech in India. The world’s largest democracy may be becoming much less free, but it’s hard to…
Last week’s winner highlights the concerns over freedom of expression in India. We’re reaching out to our correspondents to find the best journalist for the story.
“In the last 10 years,” said Gabriella Tani, an oenologist from Tuscany, “summers have been hotter and we have had more and more wines with high alcohol content, at 15 percent or more.” This is a problem, she adds, particularly with wine made from Merlot grapes.
Winemakers have a range of options available to fight the effects of climate change. They can water their vineyards more, but with rising temperatures and rain becoming more erratic, in many regions this is not an option. They can harvest the grapes earlier, but sometimes this compromises the taste and quality of the wine.
Or they can try relocating their vineyards further uphill. According to oenologist Francesco Bartoletti, in general “100 more meters [328 feet] of altitude means a loss of about 1 percent in alcohol content.”
While there are vineyards at 4,000 feet in the Alps and even higher on the Etna volcano in Sicily, such an altitude would fundamentally change many Italian wines whose character comes from the place where the grapes have grown for hundreds of years. It also means they would not qualify for Italy wine classification system, which labels wines as DOC or DOCG according to their place of origin and methods of production.
“We might have to change some of these rules,” said Bosco. “Maybe not for the big name wines, but probably for the medium-quality ones or they won’t be able to stand up against the competition.”
In fact, climate change is proving favorable for countries such as Germany that have previously been considered too cold for wine-making. For Bosco, “climate change and a taste for ‘lighter’ wines are helping Continental European wines.” Wines fromEngland and other northern countries hold new promise.
“The future,” said Bartoletti, “will see vineyards move north,” while southern European vintners in traditional wine-producing countries will suffer.
Some say the answer lies in big-scale industrial techniques, such as alcohol removal, already widely employed in countries including Australia or South Africa. France and Spain ― two other big European wine-producers that have to cope with the effects of global warming ― have already made it legal. But in Italy, with its small wineries and its strong emphasis in traditional winemaking techniques, such a technique might be more difficult to accept.
“After all, wine is an agricultural product, not an industrial one, and it can’t follow consumers’ tastes blindly,” Bosco said. “If you apply an industrial process such as alcohol removal, it’s not wine anymore. You’ll have to call it something else: maybe ‘wine-based beverage.’”

Source: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/italy/110618/italian-wine-alcohol-content-climate-change
TRAILER 7

Top rated outdoor place in Pampanga, highly recommended for families with children looking for a good safe place for kids to play and enjoy family bonding with parents

Poor Philippines Records in Law and Order drove city dwellers to enjoy holidays in havens like Clark Freeport.

Metro Manila has lost a great deal of its luster of old not only because of its failure to keep up with the times in development but also its reputation as a safe destination for family bonding, travelers looking to unwind and relax in a beach or a lake and retirees looking for a life of leisure.

Clark Pampanga was the largest foreign US airbase, complete with its own international airport with daily flights linking it to major cities around Asia. Inside of Clark Philippines are golf courses, casinos, family-styled resorts that smacks of the US suburban lifestyles and fine-dining restaurants. Travelers going north to Clark Pampanga look for enjoyable hotel for family bonding during summer vacation in Philippines. Most prefer the privacy of an exclusive resort that offers outdoor amenities like beach, lake and picnic grounds so the whole family can spend quality time, lay back and rest with no stress.

This web site contains articles and information that will be helpful to visitors, residents and tourists traveling out of town from Manila on a short getaway to Subic, Angeles City, Pampanga and Clark Philippines. There are several web sites that contain information that might also be pertinent to what is happening in North Luzon, Subic, Tarlac, Pampanga, Clark Freeport Philippines.

Wedding couples looking for wedding reception venues and beach wedding venues can log on to this Philippines Wedding Venue web site for free information and assistance:

For assistance with lodgings, accommodations, hotels and resorts near Manila in Subic, Pampanga, Angels City and Clark Philippines log on to http://www.HotelClarkPhilippines.com

While in Clark, one might as well add to the itinerary a visit to the famous Clark Wine Center, the largest wine shop in Philippines which offers over 2000 selections of fine vintage wine from all wine regions, vintages spanning over 50 years covering all price ranges.

http://www.ClarkWineCenter.com

---

If this article about Clark is useful to you, please click here to contact us to tell us what more you wish to know about this article or Clark Philippines, which can be something about Clark investment, about Clark resorts, about Clark Swimming and Leisure or simply general news about Clark.

---

Please send questions to Editor@ClarkPhilippines.com. Leave your name, email address, contact numbers and we will get back to you as soon as possible. Information received will not be disclosed.

---