The vineyards of Bordeaux and Burgundy are facing a challenge to grow the right grapes due to the onset of climate change, it is claimed.

French wines are subject to very strict rules regarding the types of grape used in production; it's part of a system that holds the terroir - the relationship between the soil, climactic conditions and the grapes - above all else.

However, Gregory V Jones, a climatologist at the University of Southern Oregon, believes that rising global temperatures will make growing the correct grapes ever more difficult in years to come, Yale University's Environment 360 reports.

"If we look at the best data we have - there's some data that goes back 500 or so years, and some paleoclimate stuff going back much further - on balance, changes underway today are as big or bigger than anything in those records," Mr Jones explains.

He goes on to predict that by the year 2049, Bordeaux will have reached the upper temperature limit for growing red grapes, such as Cabernet Sauvignon, that grace bottles of prestigious First Growths such as Chateau Lafite Rothschild and Chateau Latour.

Furthermore, the temperatures could be beyond the acceptable window for growing the Sauvignon Blanc grapes that create the region's famous white wines, such as the sweet Chateau d'Yquem.

Mr Jones predicts that growers will have to start looking at producing other grape varietals, changing the European wine landscape permanently.

"If Burgundy warms to the point where Pinot Noir and Chablis are no longer the best grapes for that region, will people buy a new product?" he ponders.

"At some point a grower in a region that has become too warm has to make a decision."

For now though, growers in Champagne are enjoying the benefits of higher temperatures.

Dom Perignon's chef de cave Richard Geoffrey recently told Global Post that climate change is helping to produce more "quality and consistency" in the region.