Hottest year so far: Good news for grapes

We're in the throes of the warmest year on record so far, but for once, there has been a positive effect of climate change.

After a long, hot summer filled with droughts, hosepipe bans and shrinking harvests, there has been one impact for the better.

Here in the UK, winemakers are now able to grow and produce new and different varieties of wine, that they wouldn't have been able to without the warming climate.

Our climate is now comparable to northern France, but in around 20 years it could be more similar to southern France, again enabling greater varieties of wine to be produced in our climes.

We have just witnessed the seventh warmest October on record, with six out of ten of the warmest Octobers having also occurred in the last century.

This has enabled a longer growing season for the grapes that produce wine, with them also thriving in the high temperatures and remaining largely unaffected by the dryness.