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Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg

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By Rudy Ruitenberg

October 15, 2015 at 11:07 PM UTC

Updated on

October 16, 2015 at 3:31 PM UTC

This summer was a scorcher in France, the second-hottest on record. For Bordeaux wine growers, those searing temperatures were the latest reminder that global warming is threatening to upend their world.

In a vineyard on the outskirts of the world’s wine capital, Agnes Destrac, a researcher with France’s National Institute for Agricultural Research, points to shriveled merlot grapes, left to linger on the vine well past harvest time to simulate the effects of rising temperatures.