18/7/2026

LYFE SATURDAY | JULY 18, 2026

23

IN a vineyard on the Greek island of Santorini, winemaker Yiannis Boutaris gestures to a dried up kouloura vine trained into the shape of a basket to protect the grapes from the gruelling summer sun. The plant endured for 90 years but was finally killed by heat and drought. Its fate highlights a growing problem on Santorini, where low rainfall and searing temperatures from 2023-2025 have increased the price of grapes, slashed wine production and intensified concerns over water supply – an issue blighting much of Greece as climate change makes summers hotter and rainfall more erratic. “The lack of rain, in combination with the lack of cultivation, in the last couple of years has led to these old vineyards really dying. The main thing for our winery is we are not abandoning tradition... we are adapting the vineyard to the new circumstances,” said Boutaris, whose winery has its own vineyards and also buys grapes – including from the vineyard with the dying vines. Ancient vineyards try novel techniques Boutaris, a sixth-generation winemaker who runs the Domaine Sigalas winery, now part of the Kir-Yianni family of wineries, is testing a pilot project with local authorities and scientists to take wastewater from homes and hotels to irrigate the vines. They say the practice, also used in California, could be more sustainable and energy- efficient than taking water from expensive desalination plants. Boutaris is also testing planting vines in rows rather than scattered in the traditional way, to He and others have also installed fans and water-mist systems, but those extra cooling measures have sent their energy costs soaring. Rising bills are also hitting managers of the warehouses where cheese wheels are stored during the ageing process for at least 12 months, sometimes three years or even longer. More than 500,000 wheels of Parmigiano Reggiano, together worth more than €300 million (RM1.4 billion), are stored in the two warehouses operated by Credito Emiliano unit Magazzini Generali delle Tagliate (MGT) in the provinces of Reggio Emilia and Modena. “During this year’s peak heatwaves, our daily energy consumption rose by about 30%. To make our facilities as energy-efficient as possible, we have improved our cooling systems and boilers, upgraded building insulation and increased renewable energy production,” MGT director Giancarlo Ravanetti said. ‘We don’t want to be last generation to eat it’ The region’s climate-controlled warehouses have become institutions, collectively known as the Bank of Parmigiano. Behind their walls, F IFTY years ago, farmers in Italy’s Emilia Romagna region used to open the windows in their barns at night during the summer to keep their cattle cool. Today, as heatwaves send temperatures soaring to record highs, those windows stay open round the clock to protect the cows and ultimately their milk, the foundation of the area’s centuries-old Parmigiano Reggiano cheese industry. “Extreme heat impacts milk’s quality and quantity,” said Nicola Bertinelli, Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium president, who also runs the dairy farm that his family founded in 1895 on the outskirts of Parma. Costs mount as cheese ages With temperatures topping 40°C, cows spend more time lying down, eat less and produce up to 10% less milk, one of the Parmigiano’s only three ingredients alongside salt and rennet. Production of authentic Parmigiano Reggiano is only allowed in five provinces, mostly in the Emilia-Romagna region, and cows must be fed exclusively with grass and hay grown there. “If it doesn’t rain, grass doesn’t grow, hay cannot be produced and it’s impossible to obtain the milk needed to make the cheese,” Bertinelli, 54, told Reuters.

Extreme heat threatens Italy’s Parmesan cheese o As temperatures top 40°, cows produce less milk An employee turns a wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano cheese inside a cheese vault. – REUTERSPIC

milk, but above all, they will lead to higher costs,” he said. There is a lot at stake. The Parmigiano Reggiano industry generates an estimated €4.5 billion in revenue a year, employing thousands and powering the local economy. In 2025, exports of the cheese accounted for more than 50% of Parmigiano Reggiano’s global sales, with the US as its largest foreign market. “(Parmigiano Reggiano) has existed for more than 800 years. We don’t want to be the last generation to eat it,” Ganzerli said.

the real strength of the entire process,” Ravanetti said. Paolo Ganzerli, international sales director at food group GranTerre, which posted consolidated revenue of €1.87 billion in 2025, echoed Ravanetti’s concerns about rising bills. “If extreme events become longer-lasting and more intense, they will certainly have an impact on the quantity and quality of

technology and tradition go hand in hand. Each wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano undergoes strict quality inspections – including X-ray scans – to rule out defects. The cheese is checked weekly by experts who tap each wheel with small hammers, listening for signs of flaws that may have developed during the ageing process. “The human factor remains key and is

Greek winemakers try to adapt to low rainfall, gruelling summer sun

Boutaris checks one of his vineyards. – PICS FROM REUTERS

Assyrtiko grapes at Boutaris’s vineyard.

getting hotter and drier. “We are already seeing problems in the quality and special character of the wines.” Winemaker Yiannis Papaeconomou is also planning to tap into the wastewater project for his six-year-old vines. He has been trying other techniques such as a system that irrigates the vines underneath the soil rather than from above, to reduce evaporation, as well as trellising them so they can be watered more efficiently. “So we must adapt and proceed in a new way of thinking and, you know, find a way out,” he said. – Reuters

500 tonnes last year. Winemakers are paying farmers €10 (RM47) a kg, the kind of prices seen in prosperous regions such as Champagne. In northern Greece, which is less hot, a kilo goes for just 80 cents. “Santorini reached a limit of dramatic conditions in 2023 and 2024,” said Stefanos Koundouras, a viticulture professor at Thessaloniki’s Aristotle University. He said the temperatures were the hottest in 60 years. Koundouras said the wine sector could become less sustainable all over Europe, particularly around the Mediterranean, if it keeps

make irrigation more efficient and atmospheric water harvesting. This captures moisture from the air in hydrogels, then extracts it as water with heat generated by solar panels. Wine growers are at the centre of a wider contest for land and water in Greece. In the warmer months, when millions of tourists descend on islands such as Santorini, farmers, hotel owners and swimming pool operators often compete for a share of the dwindling water supply. Production of Santorini’s famous Assyrtiko grape fell from 2,500 metric tonnes in 2022 to just