AMNA NAWAZ: Record high temperatures this year forced European wine producers to harvest grapes much earlier than usual.

French wineries fear heat and drought will lead to the worst season in 30 years.

But Nordic newcomers to the world of wine are toasting what they believe will be a vintage harvest, thanks in no small part to climate change.

From Southern Sweden, special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports.

MALCOLM BRABANT: This is the last day of harvesting at the Astad Vineyard in Klagshamn, Southern Sweden.

These grapes are destined to become sparkling wine.

Klagshamn sits at 55.5 degrees latitude, some 6.5 degrees or 450 miles north of the Champagne region of France, whose harvest took place some three weeks earlier.

The wine world is at a crossroads.

Scientists say that 90 percent of all wine-producing regions in Southern Europe could vanish by the end of the century if climate change continues.

France is the most prominent nation facing potential disaster.

But while the Mediterranean is in crisis, Scandinavia is starting to boom.

NILS MELLBIN, Vineyard Manager, Astad Vineyard: We had great weather conditions during the flowering.

We have a very good fruit set on the vines.

And then we had a very dry summer with quite low disease pressure.

So, the grapes are looking really, really well.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Nils Mellbin is the vineyard manager for the Astad company, which makes sparkling wine.

NILS MELLBIN: On average, we get warmer weather, of course.

And it makes the growing season longer.

So it it's -- in general, you can say that it's easier to ripen grapes in Sweden.

But we also get more extremes, like in terms of hail and spring frost and drought, and then, when the rain comes, it comes too much.

MALCOLM BRABANT: These are young vines planted two years ago.

They will reach their full potential in two to three years' time.

They produce the solaris grape, which is suited to cooler climates and isn't grown in traditional regions.

So this is the solaris grape, which is sort of special for Scandinavia.

NILS MELLBIN: Exactly.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Why is it special?

NILS MELLBIN: Because it ripens so well in our climate, yes.

And it needs a shorter growing season to ripen.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Let's just have a taste.

It's beautifully sweet.

NILS MELLBIN: Yes.

There's sugar and there's acidity.

There's nice aromatics, nice fruit flavors.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Well, the only fruit flavor I can detect is grape.

NILS MELLBIN: Grape.

(LAUGHTER) NILS MELLBIN: Yes.

MALCOLM BRABANT: But what do you detect?

NILS MELLBIN: Now it's getting riper, so now I detect some tropical fruits, almost like mango passion fruit.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Can you really taste that?

NILS MELLBIN: Yes, yes, yes.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Contrast that optimism with the angst endured by Champagne wine growers in Northern France.

Warmer weather means the harvest now takes place in mid-August instead of September.

Yields this year were down by 30 percent because of spring frost, heat and drought.

KIMBERLY NICHOLAS, Lund University: The impacts of climate change are unequivocally bad around the world.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Kimberly Nicholas was born and raised in Sonoma, Californian wine country, and now studies climate solutions at Lund University in Southern Sweden.

KIMBERLY NICHOLAS: We're already seeing in traditional wine-growing regions it's more difficult to grow the varieties and the quality of grapes that's been grown there, even in places that might benefit in some sense from warmer temperatures like these northern latitudes.

Climate change increases variability and makes it much more difficult to grow crops.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Meanwhile, 130 miles up the Swedish coast, it's what the winemakers call game day, the pressing, the next stage in production, where juice is extracted and separated from skins, seeds, and stems.

CLAES BARTOLDSSON, Winemaker, Astad Vineyard: want to make be a part of making Sweden a wine country, not for Swedes, but for the rest of the world.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Winemaker Claes Bartoldsson has been with this family-run vintner for 17 years.

CLAES BARTOLDSSON: Last year, we produced about 20,000 bottles.

This year, we are getting grapes for 70,000 bottles.

So we're building a new winery for 300,000 bottles starting this winter.

MALCOLM BRABANT: This wine is not intended to compete against Champagne because it comes from a different grape.

But just minutes into the pressing, Bartoldsson is upbeat about producing a palatable alternative.

CLAES BARTOLDSSON: So this is like the freshest, precious juice, and I think it looks great today, really pure.

So the acidity is like up here, but the sugar is perfect, so, yes, it's going to be a great vintage.

And we can't wait to taste this in a couple of years.

MALCOLM BRABANT: The belief that Swedish wine is coming of age was reinforced last December at a Nobel Prize banquet when a local vintage was chosen to refresh the laureates' palates.

The wine came from the Kullabergs Vineyard on the coast, across the water from Denmark, and run by chief executive Victor Dahl.

VICTOR DAHL, CEO, Kullabergs Vineyard: We see that this is a very good place to be in order to grow grapes.

We should be able to adapt to the future.

We can make elegant wine with very nice aromatic, which the gastronomy is asking for, actually.

MALCOLM BRABANT: Although the Swedish wine sector is booming, the state retains what critics regard as an eccentric, outdated monopoly on alcohol sales.

It's designed to limit consumption and to minimize the impact on society.

Murat Sofrakis is helping his neighbors while waiting to harvest grapes that he will turn into a still white wine, which, like other varieties, is subject to sales restrictions.

MURAT SOFRAKIS, Owner, Klagshamn Wine: If you come to our vineyard, you need to pay for the visit.

And after you paid, and I talk for 30 minutes, then you will be able to buy three liters of wine, so four bottles.

You can't just drop in and buy a bottle of wine in Sweden, you know.

MALCOLM BRABANT: We tracked down a bottle of Sofrakis' vintage in a wine bar in the city of Malmo on Sweden's southwestern coast.

The price was a shade north of $30.

Wine journalist and sommelier Karin Ericson gave her verdict.

KARIN ERICSON, Sommelier: Here is a really aromatic wine, and like peach and bananas and the pears and some nuttiness to it, also, like a developed wine.

MALCOLM BRABANT: That smells pretty good.

I can't taste all of the tropical fruits that the experts seem to be able to find, but then I'm no expert.

Let's just have a taste.

Different.

I haven't tasted anything like that before, but good luck to it.

KARIN ERICSON: I don't think it's going to be a mass market, and I don't think it should be either, because if you say Swedish vineyards are quite small, and you always handpick.

Then you have low yields.

And also one other part of it is that we protect the workers.

So we have laws in Sweden that gives them a good salary, that gives them a good quality of the work, which makes wines more expensive to do.

MALCOLM BRABANT: The Swedes are relishing what they call their honeymoon period.

So far, they have avoided some of the diseases that have afflicted vines in traditional European regions.

Now they're hoping that the warmer weather can uncork a new successful era.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Malcolm Brabant in Southern Sweden.