child: honoring asian american and pacific islander heritage means turning the page on hate. captioning funded by cbs and ford. we go further, so you can. >> tonight, on this special edition of "60 minutes presents: cheers!" "60 minutes" traveled to europe, to find out how extreme weather is affecting some of the most famous wines in the world. how many bottles were you able to produce? >> a normal year, i produce around 40,000, 50,000 bottles. >> this year? >> zero. >> climate change has affected many of france's vintages severely. its economy, too. but in rainy old england, across the channel, we found a very different story. do you think that wine lovers around the world already know that great wines are coming out

of england? in other words-- is it "ooh, la la" no more? it's "jolly good"? ( laughter ) ( ticking ) >> in a changing britain, nostalgia can reside at the bottom of a glass. in the oh-so-english village of aldworth in berkshire, you'll find just a cricket green, a church, a few houses, and a pub resistant to time. the bell inn has been in the family of heather macauley for 200 years. we've talked to some pub owners who've said they-- they felt this pressure to evolve, and they're trying gourmet food and d.j.s and technology. >> well, i don't even have a mobile phone. ( ticking ) (regina) hi. yes, i need a locksmith. three hours? guess i'll be right here...

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>> lesley stahl: good evening. welcome to "60 minutes presents." i'm lesley stahl. we've entered the season of graduations, weddings, and backyard barbecues. it's the time to raise a bubbly glass or lift a foamy pint and

offer a hearty "cheers." tonight, we toast the venerable english pub, but we begin by clinking our glasses to the fast-evolving wine industry. what are the signs of global warming? glaciers are melting at an increasingly rapid pace. persistent droughts are spreading. and we have another to tell you about: wine. farmers who grow the grapes have seen the effects of climate change in the soil, in the roots of the vines, and the yields of their crops. france, a major center of winemaking for centuries, is experiencing increasingly higher temperatures and extreme weather conditions that have damaged vintages and livelihoods; last year was particularly dramatic. france recorded its smallest harvest since 1957 and lost more than $2 billion in sales, a huge blow to the country's second-

largest export industry. and, as we first reported in december, it's hitting nearly all the wine-growing regions where they make dry whites, fruity reds, and fizzy champagne. all bubblies are called sparkling wine, but champagne is made here and nowhere else-- in these vineyards and villages of champagne, located in northeastern france. there's a mystique to champagne, an aura of romance. coco chanel once said, "i only drink champagne on two occasions-- when i'm in love, and when i'm not." they've been producing this "wine of kings" here for centuries. so, how long has this winemaking business and the vineyards been in your family? >> christine sevillano: from 1700. >> stahl: 1700. >> sevillano: yes.

>> stahl: christine sevillano took over the family business and its 20 acres of vines 14 years ago. she's the tenth generation. >> sevillano: this is the cellar of my grandfather. >> stahl: oh. after surviving the french revolution and two world wars, her family's house of piot- sevillano faced its worst year ever in 2021. >> sevillano: we lost 90% of our harvest. >> stahl: 90%? >> sevillano: yes. >> stahl: how many bottles were you able to produce this year, as opposed to a normal year? >> sevillano: a normal year, i produce around 40,000, 50,000 bottles. >> stahl: and this year? >> sevillano: zero. it's the first time in the history of my winery that we will not make champagne. >> stahl: not a single bottle from this winery? >> sevillano: yes, yes. >> stahl: higher temperatures and extreme weather episodes devastated not only her harvest,

but much of champagne's. >> sevillano: it rained in two or three days that it rained normally in one month. even my father told me that in his career he has never seen that. >> stahl: almost flood-like? >> sevillano: yes. >> stahl: the worst of it, she says, came in june and july, when the heat and the rains resulted in a more crippling outbreak than usual of funguses, like mildew contamination. >> sevillano: in fact, when the grapes are contaminated, the-- the fruit is drying. and after, we can't use it, because there is no juice, nothing. >> stahl: and you attribute this to climate change? >> sevillano: yes. because it was so extreme. it's not normal. >> stahl: last year's extreme weather not only battered champagne and the foundation of its economy, but nearly every one of the wine-producing regions in france-- burgundy to bordeaux, where some of the highest quality, best-known and

best-tasting reds and whites are made. and these are what grape? what, what-- >> jacques lurton: this is merlot. >> stahl: merlot! i love merlot. >> lurton: yeah, merlot makes a beautiful, soft-rounded wines. >> stahl: jacques lurton, the head of a wine family dynasty, runs the chateau la louviere and several other wineries in bordeaux. he says vine disease is getting worse all over france because of the rising temperatures. >> lurton: we don't have winters anymore, almost. in wintertime, normally you get colder conditions. these cool conditions tend to kill the funguses or the disease. so normally, winter cleans the situation, you see? but the most important problem that we have is what we call spring frost. >> stahl: spring frost was so severe in april last year that winegrowers were on their knees lighting bales of hay and candles between their vines in a

mostly futile attempt to protect their young buds. >> lurton: it is the largest catastrophe we have ever suffered. because, before, we had some spring frost in some regions, but this is the first time we have it all over france. now, due to the fact that we don't have these very strong winters, the buds start to open, and then expose themself to this series of spring frost that we have. >> stahl: and that is the crux-- >> lurton: and that, you see, is what affect the most the quantity of the grapes. >> stahl: so, tell us about this year, in terms of the amount. >> lurton: in average, in france this year, a loss of 30%. >> stahl: 30% of the yields. and what about you? what's your percent? >> lurton: and us, we have been affected up to 40%. >> stahl: so, you're one of the largest wine producers in bordeaux. 40% loss. i mean, that's enormous.

>> lurton: it's huge. it's huge. >> stahl: for bordeaux, he estimates a loss of roughly $800 million in sales last year. is this something that's happening all over europe or-- or just france? >> greg jones: no. it's happening all over europe, definitely. >> stahl: greg jones is a research climatologist with southern oregon university, who for 25 years has specialized in the study of how climate influences the growing and harvesting of wine grapes. >> jones: what we're seeing today is, we're seeing more of these extreme events happening more frequently at greater degrees and causing more problems. >> stahl: yeah, we see it everywhere. it's not just in farm regions. i mean, every part of our country is experiencing some extreme weather condition. so, how do you know it isn't that "normal" extreme weather, as opposed to a general climate change? >> jones: there's an area in climate science called attribution science.tribn nc a ouyio oan

understand how much role humans have in the game of climate. so, the idea-- >> stahl: or who to attribute it to, okay. >> jones: yeah, yeah. so, what climatologists do is, we develop models that look at aspects of climate. and those models that are coming out are really telling us more and more that, in the absence of humans, most of these things would not occur to the same degree they're occurring today. >> stahl: tie what you're saying about climate to what's going on in france now. >> jones: sure. in-- in-- in france, just like most of europe, temperatures have gone up. summers have gotten dryer. and wine grapes are just sensitive. they're sensitive to those kind of changes, and-- and we've been seeing it worldwide. and europe has been at the epicenter of it. >> stahl: this weather map of europe for june 2021, the second-warmest june in europe on record, shows a red band depicting high surface air temperatures stretching across much of the continent. heat waves were also recorded over western north america in

june 2021. scorching temperatures and drought conditions contributed to wildfires in 2020 around napa and sonoma, the center of america's wine industry, where fields were left blackened. in australia, the bush fires of 2019 and '20 burnt some vineyards to the ground, while smoke ruined the quality of the grapes. in 2017, in italy, spring frost, combined with hailstorms and a heat wave known as "lucifer," led to the lowest harvest in decades. particularly hard hit was northern and central italy, where prosecco, barolo and chianti are made. and in parts of chile and argentina, higher temperatures are pushing wine-growers to plant their vineyards at higher altitudes, where temperatures

are cooler. greg jones says the warming atmosphere is also changing the grapes' growth cycle. >> jones: it accelerates that ripening to the point that we're picking earlier. for example, 2020, in burgundy, the picking date was august 20. and prior to that, we've been averaging for the last 30 years, about september 15. and then, for 600 years before that, we were averaging the end of september, first of october. so, you can-- >> stahl: oh, so it's dramatic. >> jones: so it's pretty dramatic. >> stahl: these pages of parchment, documenting harvest dates going back as far as 1354, were found in the church of notre dame in burgundy. 1354. >> jones: it's a wonderful data record that we've been able to look at to better understand what climates were like back then, how it affected harvests, and what that looks like today. >> stahl: i'm smiling because

i'm thinking, 1300s. i'm thinking, the monks were making wine. >> jones: well, exactly. >> stahl: the wine industry in france is so vital to the economy that the government has scientists studying ways to adapt and mitigate the changing environment. one route to adaptation is to introduce new grape varieties. experimental vineyards have been planted with vines from warmer- climate countries to see if they can grow here, so the grapes can be blended in with the merlots, cabernets and other french wines. nathalie ollat is the director of the project at the bordeaux science institute of vine and wine. so, you're looking at grapes that come from southern regions that maybe grow better in warmer climates? >> nathalie ollat: yes. >> stahl: like from where? >> ollat: from spain, from portugal, from greece. >> stahl: how many are you actually looking at? >> ollat: so, in this experimental vineyard, we are studying 52 different varieties. >> stahl: they've chosen six of those varieties thus far to be planted in bordeaux. so, this is your greenhouse? >> ollat: yes. this-- it is. >> stahl: a second route of adaptation is genetic breeding.

are you actually creating new grapes; new, different kinds of grapes? >> ollat: yes. the idea is to have grapes, new varieties which can be resistant to disease and also more adapted to climate change condition. >> stahl: and do not compromise the distinctive qualities of the french wines. athe institute's labor scientists are stug the genetics of wine's color, aroma and taste. and that's what you're trying to preserve even as you introduce new grapes? >> ollat: yes. i think we-- we want to change without changing, i would say. >> stahl: yes! how confident are you that you're going to crack the puzzle; you're going to figure out how to stay ahead of climate change? >> ollat: all together, with new varieties, new growing practice, i think we can-- we can cope with climate change, at least

until the-- the middle of the 21st century. >> stahl: the middle of the century is only 30 years from now. >> ollat: yeah, yeah. >> stahl: so, you're looking at how fast temperatures are rising, and you're saying it's possible that they will rise above a point where you can't... >> ollat: that it-- it-- it will be much more complicated to keep what we call bordeaux style and bordeaux taste. >> stahl: with all the gloom and doom about warming temperatures in wine country, there's actually a surprising upside. what about quality? what about the taste? what's important about wine? how is climate change affecting that? >> lurton: alors, the climate change is affecting the quality very positively. >> stahl: positively? >> lurton: yes, ex-- exactly. we have never seen such a large quantity of good vintages of bordeaux wines. >> stahl: well, explain that. that's counterintuitive.

>> lurton: thanks to the global warming and the climate change, now we have warmer summers and which means that our grapes are ripening better. if we get good, warm conditions, we have good color quantity in the-- in the skin. but, as well, we have the right amount of sugar. >> stahl: what a painful irony-- the taste improves just as the yields are shrinking for winemakers like christine sevillano. so, more quality, but fewer grapes. dramatically fewer grapes. >> sevillano: yes. it's crazy. >> stahl: if you have another year like this one, financially, can you survive? >> sevillano: it will be difficult. really, really difficult. but at the same time, i'm trustful for next year. i mean, i'm trustful. i have to. >> stahl: improved taste is not the only unforeseen benefit of climate change for some

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>> stahl: for some winegrowers, climate change has been a disaster, as we've seen. but as it turns out, climate change has been a boon for others. while higher temperatures have hurt growers in parts of france and italy, places that historically have been too cold to produce quality wines are now turning out consistently good ones. for instance, as we first reported in december, the idea that there's no such thing as a velvety, well-balanced, first- rate wine made in england is woefully outdated. today, a new industry has taken root. healthy vineyards in england are producing some of the world's best wines. this sprawling vineyard with acres and acres of wine grapes ready for harvest is located in kent, 40 miles outside of london. it didn't exist 15 years ago, but great britain's wine-

producing fortunes have been heating up, along with the planet. so, how has climate change affected the grapes, the wine, in this region? >> stephen skelton: well, it's completely revolutionized it. >> stahl: stephen skelton, a member of the highly-respected institute of masters of wine, is a viticulturist, an expert in the science, production, and business of wine grapes. i never heard of really good english wine, i have to be honest with you. >> skelton: no, it was-- it was very, very rare, until we ralized that you could grow these classic french champagne varieties in-- in our climate. >> stahl: this is what they grow in champagne? >> skelton: yeah. and they now grow very, very successfully here in the u.k. >> stahl: what used to be a minute cottage industry run by retirees and gentleman farmers is today one of the fastest wine-growing regions in the world. this is quite an operation going on. >> skelton: oh, it's big. it's a big winery. >> stahl: in 2018, the vintage

in england was so bountiful that some vineyards had to scramble to buy vats and tanks to hold it all. others simply threw grapes away. by the end of the decade, winemakers here will produce an estimated 20 million bottles a year. >> skelton: the foundation of today's industry is the fact that we can grow these varieties, which we couldn't grow earlier. >> stahl: so, why couldn't you do it before? >> skelton: because the-- the climate was too cold. >> stahl: you just had to get the temperature up and-- >> skelton: yeah. >> stahl: so, does global warming mean that england now has more days for the grapes to ripen? is that-- >> skelton: yeah, because we have more days over 85, 86 degrees fahrenheit. we are-- we are in the u.k. now. we're now where champagne was 30 or 40 years ago. the climate has shifted in 30 or 40 years upwards; north. northwards. >> stahl: so, the climate, right now, where you and i are sitting in england, is the same as the climate was 40 years ago in france. >> skelton: in champagne.

>> stahl: in champagne, france. >> skelton: in champagne. yeah. >> stahl: he traces the birth of the industry here to 1988. >> skelton: then there came two americans, the mosses-- stuart and sandy moss. they bought an estate called nyetimber, which is very well- known today, and they were the first people to plant a big, commercial vineyard. >> stahl: what did you think? >> skelton: i thought they were bonkers. i have to say. >> stahl: okay. >> skelton: yeah, i thought they were nuts. i heard they were rich americans from up in the hills. and he had a fortune from, apparently, dental. the dental business. and i thought they were mad. their first wine took-- took a long while to mature. it was four years in the making before it was tasted. and then it won this major prize. >> stahl: right away? four years. >> skelton: yeah, yeah. and the next year, the second year, they won an even bigger prize. >> stahl: are you thinking that in a couple of years, the english sparkling wine will be actually better than what they're growing in champagne? >> skelton: they produce 300 million bottles a year. the best is still very, very good. the best is superb.

but you could line up the best ten english sparkling wines against the best ten champagnes in the same sort of prize category; i can guarantee you the english wines would be-- would be in the top half. >> stahl: to prove his point, he gave us a taste, opening a ten- year-old bottle. >> skelton: we're going to open it... professionally. >> stahl: oh, no pop! >> skelton: no pop. >> stahl: look at that! the longer sparkling wine ages, he says, the better. and what you look for is the spritz of fizz on the palette. >> skelton: you see, you've got the bubbles coming from there. >> stahl: and that's a good thing. >> skelton: yeah. you see, they're nice and small. and then, you nose it. you get a nice, yeasty character. baking bread-- brioche, as we call it. and that's a gorgeous, gorgeous bottle of wine. >> stahl: winston churchill once said, "i could not live without

champagne. in victory, i deserve it; in defeat, i need it!" well, nothing would have pleased him more than to hear that because english bubbly is now so good, the house of taittinger-- one of the most prestigious of french champagne makers-- is in england! it's now growing 120 acres of grapes and is making sparkling wine near canterbury, in what's known as "the garden of england." patrick mcgrath, who represents taittinger in great britain, persuaded the company to invest here in 2015. have you brought the grapes from france? >> patrick mcgrath: yeah. the-- the vines were imported from france as-- as tiny, little vines, and the first crop we had from them was in 2020. and then, that wine will be released at the end of 2024. >> stahl: you know, in-- in france, part of the problem is not just warming; it's extreme weather conditions. you know, too much flooding, too much frost, too hot.

won't england also have extreme situations like that? >> mcgrath: not at the moment. we're fortunate, you know. england is coming onto the radar as being an area that is warming, but is still moderate in terms of heat, compared to south and central europe, where it's becoming very, very hot. >> stahl: do you think that wine lovers around the world already know that great wines are coming out of england? in other words-- is it "ooh, la la" no more? it's "jolly good"? >> mcgrath: i think-- i think in-- we're still at the, sort of-- in the starting block. but, certainly, yes. over the last ten years the-- from a small base, the sales of english have been growing substantially. >> stahl: taittinger's aim is to produce 300,000 bottles a year by 2025. overall, the english wine industry had $220 million in sales in 2020. the idea of first-rate english wine would have been laughed at

20 years ago, but a similar migration has happened on the west coast of the united states, where excellent and increasingly popular pinot and chardonnay grapes are now found 560 miles north of napa, in willamette valley, oregon. >> greg jones: in the 1950s and '60s, there were really almost no grapes grown in oregon. and that was because the climates were too cold. and so, if you fast forward to where we are today, we're just in a different world. >> stahl: greg jones, a wine climatologist at southern oregon university, says grapes are now growing in even more unexpected places. >> jones: we have wineries today in norway, in quebec, in-- in british columbia, in tasmania, in-- in the south islands of-- of chile. >> stahl: tasmanian wine. >> jones: yeah, tasmania's really been burgeoning as really a great wine-producing region in australia. >> stahl: oh, well, that's interesting. tasmania is south of australia. >> jones: sure. >> stahl: so, as winemaking goes north in the northern

hemisphere, are you saying it's going south... >> jones: south. yes, yeah. >> stahl: ...in the southern hemisphere? >> jones: yeah. it's going further poleward in both hemispheres. in parts of southern argentina and chile, and-- and parts of-- many parts of northern europe have started growing grapes. >> stahl: in real time. >> jones: in real time. >> stahl: so, if you really want a very vivid "now" example of what's happening due to climate change, go look at wine. >> jones: yeah, you can. people are experimenting at-- at northerly latitudes, that-- i'm amazed that in my career i didn't think i would see it. >> stahl: in the uited kingdom, as a measure of its acceptance, english sparkling wine has had the royal imprimatur, the queen serving it at buckingham palace. and it was poured at the recent climate change summit in scotland. master of wine stephen skelton is bullish on the future. if global warming is intensifying, how worried are you and the other english

vintners that it's going to move north beyond your ability to grow good grapes? >> stephen skelton: no, i'm not worried at all. i mean, the next 40 years is going to be fascinating, i think. because, you know, we're just on the cusp of it being really commercial. our yield levels are not quite where we want them yet. you know, we would like a little bit more heat. >> stahl: you might get it. >> skelton: yeah. >> stahl: but eventually... >> skelton: who knows? we'll have to start growing oranges and bananas. >> stahl: i mean, it's a serious question. >> skelton: yeah. personally, i think we will cope with-- with what's being thrown at us. >> stahl: some of the winemakers we met are benefiting, some are suffering, but all are seeing first-hand the message that climate change is delivering. >> jones: wine grapes have often been called the canary in the coal mine. >> stahl: climatologist greg jones says that's been true since the first wine was made in 6000 b.c. in eastern europe, and then spread to ancient egypt, greece, and persia. kings celebrated their victories with wine, and the christian

world put it at the heart of the eucharist. wine history, jones says, is human history. >> jones: wine touches society in some pretty powerful ways. it's related to civilizations. it's related to history. it's related to geography. it's related to romanticism, art, gastronomy, biology, chemistry. so, there's so many things that are tied to it that it becomes something that we can-- we can tell the story of climate change through wine pretty easily. ( ticking ) >> from the "60 minutes" archive: how climate change is reshaping many facets of our world. go to 60minutesovertime.com. sponsored by cologuard. i could've waited to tell my doctor my heart was racing just making spaghetti... but i didn't wait. i could've delayed telling my doctor i was short of breath just reading a book... but i didn't wait.

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only eight and a half cents is left for the homeless. and in virginia, arizona, and other states, fanduel and draftkings use loopholes to pay far less than was promised. sound familiar? it should. it's another bad scheme for california. ( ticking ) >> stahl: we were nearing last call on the grandest of british institutions: the pub. after enduring for hundreds of years as centers for schmoozing and boozing, pubs were going the way of morning newspapers, afternoon tea, and the whole idea of empire. a range of factors undercut the kind of neighborhood joint where everyone knows your name. then came covid, which kept most british pubs closed for more than a year. but last summer, the u.k.

reopened and, not unlike an oerserved patron, the pub story started to stagger and lurch in an unexpected direction. and, as jon wertheim first reported in october, maybe it's not quite closing time after all. >> jon wertheirm: 1,200-plus years old? a man walks into a pub. of course he does. in this case, it's a very old pub, ye olde fighting cocks, in st. albans outside london. its landlord, or publican, is christo tofalli. so your pub is one of dozens in this country that claims to be the oldest ever? >> christo tofalli: you're absolutely right. >> wertheirm: make-- make your case. make your case. >> tofalli: it turns out there's a bit of a misconception, which one's the oldest and what the oldest pub is. so, we're the oldest pub. the first brick was laid in 793, and the oldest inhabited building in europe. vikings invaded england in the same year the first brick was laid, in 793.

>> wertheirm: i suspect vikings would like this place. >> tofalli: they would love this place. >> wertheirm: before we go further, let's define our terms: we're not talking about mere bars, or for the love of god, sports bars. these are pubs, short for public houses. they exist as much for conviviality as for what's on tap: cold lager, and to the shock of first-timers, warm ale. they've been cornerstones of the culture here for centuries. the writer/comedian al murray believes the value propositon goes well beyond beer. >> al murray: it's a community place. it's a communitarian place, in a way that sitting in your front room watching television just isn't. >> wertheirm: what is it about this culture that has such appeal to you? >> murray: to sound sort of idealistic about it, princes and paupers are equally welcome in here. and given that britain is such a class-ridden society, there are very few places where, you know, you stand at the bar and your-- your money's as good as anyone else's. >> wertheirm: you sound like a pub romantic. >> murray: i am completely romantic about the idea of pubs. >> wertheirm: why?

>> murray: there is something genuinely beautiful about the idea of somewhere where anyone can go at any time and sit in the corner, with-- with their own thoughts and a drink, and it's a beautiful notion. >> wertheirm: you don't go to turner's old star for quiet contemplation. one of the last of the so-called boozers in london's east end, it's the heartbeat of the proudly working-class community here. put in a day of work-- you work hard, you come in, and then you... ? >> pub patron: yeah, absolutely. you work hard all day and then you, kind of like-- it's just like having a mental shower after a hard day's work. kind of wind down. it's like a real-life "cheers," i guess, you know? >> pub patron: they make you feel welcome. they make you feel welcome. you're family. you're family. >> wertheirm: paul and bernice drew have run the old star for 17 years. they met across the street. got engaged here. they live upstairs. the pub is their living room, the regulars, their oldest friends. when you say "regulars," though, these are really regulars. >> paul drew: oh yeah, everyday. >> bernice drew: everybody.

everyone from naught to 90 enoys themselves. there's a core of people, i suppose ten, 15 people, that come in every day regardless. winter, summer, whenever. >> paul drew: they all come, have their couple of beers, have a laugh. chew the wag, as they say. and, you know, slag everyone off. ( laughs ) they're always having a go at each other. ( laughter ) >> wertheirm: i hear you say with a real pride, "this is a proper pub." >> paul drew: it is. it's my pub pub. it's what we call it, don't we? >> bernice drew: no, it's a pub pub. >> paul drew: we call it our pub pub. >> wertheirm: for centuries, pubs have been as much salon as saloon, as they've taken a stool and watched history and myth unfold. in london's soho, the french house was where bohemians would rub shoulders with resistance leaders. after paris fell to the nazis in 1940, charles de gaulle, in exile, is said to have written his famous speech to the french free forces here. a little further east on the river thames, legend has it that the 17th century judge jeffreys would watch those he sentenced hang, as he lunched and sipped ale at the prospect of whitby.

and then there's the cholera epidemic that gripped london in 1854, killing 550 people in two weeks. a local doctor, john snow, figured out the problem: contaminated water from a well was spreading the disease, and simply removing the handle from the pump effectively ended the epidemic. john snow wasn't knighted, but he did receive what might be the next-highest british honor-- christening a pub after someone is an exception. many pub names read like drunken "mad libs:" random adjective plus random noun, often an animal. the ape and apple. the snooty fox. the drunken duck. the black dog. for pete brown, britain's leading writer on beer and pubs, these names offer a clue to every establishment's story. what's going on here? >> pete brown: it's become one of the quirky aspects of the

british pub. but it-- it starts off in a very practical way, which is that most of the population who went to pubs until recently were illiterate. so, you couldn't put a name sign up. you had to have a pictorial sign. so you-- you'd pick a pict-- you'd pick a picture of something that had some resonance with people. but then, some of the ones that you just mentioned, i think, it's kind of the pub self- satirizing itself. >> wertheirm: and it's not just pub names that veer toward the colorful and eccentric. just behind london's law courts, and then behind the bar, you'll find the owner, chef, and star performer of the seven stars pub, the talented mrs. roxy beaujolais. your husband is american. >> roxy beaujolais: yes. >> wertheirm: how do you explain what you do to-- to his family? >> beaujolais: well, when i was first introduced to them, about 30 years ago, his mother asked me what i did. and i said, "i'm a publican." she said, "what?" and my husband dove in and said, "no, no, no, no, no, mama. n-- not a republican! ( laughs )

a publican-- a tavern keeper." >> wertheirm: so what-- what is it about this job that clearly feeds something in you? >> beaujolais: i'm good at it, darling. ( laughter ) i'm good at it. you know, i cook, i-- you know, i have a passing interest in the product that i sell, myself. you know, i love it. >> wertheirm: for the last 25 years, comedian al murray has loved playing the figure behind the bar. his alter ego on stages? a head-shaved, over-opinionated blowhard he calls "the pub landlord." >> pub landlord: we're sensible people in this country, aren't we? down to earth people. we never put a man on the moon. nah, the moon was never going to be part of the british empire, was it? nah. there's no one to give it back to, once were done with it, was there? >> wertheirm: what is it about that archetype? >> murray: he's a know-all who knows nothing. it's-- it's a guy who has power but no authority. it's a guy who is-- is writing intellectual checks he can't possibly cash. >> wertheirm: a mile-- mile

wide, inch deep. >> murray: it's the whole swirl of what happens in a pub. the publican is the conduit, the confessor, the-- the sort of, you know, high priest, in-- in a space like this. so, all goes through him. >> wertheirm: it's all good fun, but as his character suggests, pub culture is, if not eroding, undergoing considerable change. for generations, the number of british pubs has been declining. from 65,000 to fewer than 50,000 in the last 25 years. the causes of death are many: high beer duty, a smoking ban, cheap supermarket lager, people drinking less. perhaps the biggest culprits? venture capitalists and developers more interested in a pub's real estate than what's on tap. and then, in march 2020 came the hammer blow-- covid-19. what was it like when this closed for the first time? >> tofalli: soul-destroying. i mean, in business terms--

lethal. i still haven't got any words for it, jon. it-- it-- it-- we have a passion to open the door every single day. >> wertheirm: this-- this wasn't just, change the sign on the door? this sounds almost existential? >> tofalli: oh, it's terminal, for a lot of pubs. >> wertheirm: even in the worst of times-- the napoleonic wars, the spanish flu-- pubs did not close. despite the bombings in the blitz, churchill insisted that pubs remain open. how bad can things be, if we can still pull a pint? >> newsreel: this is just a little story to show that the spirit of the pubs is excellent; their houses bombed, they carry on outside. >> wertheirm: the lockdown gave britain a glimpse of a future without pubs. for months, the cobbled streets where dickens once walked: silent. the taverns where chaucer or shakespeare might have drunk: empty. millions of barrels of beer

literally down the drain. what does this country stand to lose if pubs diminish? >> brown: part of its identity. we celebrate our nationality in a very quiet way. in-- in a very modest way. and the pub is the perfect example of that. we're-- we're proud of the pub. and if it was taken away from us, i think we'd lose something of what defines us, as a nation. >> wertheirm: it's not flag- waving jingoism, but-- but coming in here is sort of an-- an-- an-- >> brown: yeah. >> wertheirm: --act of patriotism, you're saying. >> brown: it's just coming in and just going, "yeah, i'll have another pint, thank you." >> wertheirm: coming out of lockdown, the pint-wielding patriots believed, more than ever, that the pub is an institution worth saving. saving the traditional pub, is that nostalgia for a britain that may no longer exist? >> murray: oh, there are so many britains that may no longer exist, but the-- the one that's worth saving is the pub, surely. i mean, you know, we don't need a navy anymore, do we? we need pubs. ( laughs )

>> wertheirm: in a changing britain, nostalgia can reside at the bottom of a glass. in the oh-so-english village of aldworth in berkshire, you'll find just a cricket green, a church, a few houses, and a pub resistant to time. the bell inn has been in the family of heather macaulay for 200 years. she was born in the pub, and now, at age 85, runs it with her son, hugh. how many generations in-- in these 200 years? >> heather macaulay: we go as-- it was james and hugh and thomas and ronald and then me. five, i suppose. >> wertheirm: we've talked to some pub owners who've said they-- they felt this pressure to evolve, and they're trying gourmet food and d.j.s and technology. >> hugh macaulay: here, no. we are plain, simple. that's how we survive, that's how we're going to survive. i don't think we'll ever be putting tvs in here, somehow. >> heather macaulay: oh no, no. well, i don't even have a mobile

phone. >> wertheirm: pubs like the bell inns and the old stars have done what they've always done, served their communities. but where does the rest of the country fit in? nigerian-born clement ogbonnaya is proud owner of the prince of peckham in south london. he has taken the magic of the pub and adapted it to multicultural, 21st century britain. >> wertheirm: you hear the word "pub" 20 years ago. what are you thinking? >> clement ogbonnaya: i'm thinking, i'm not going there. ( laughs ) >> wertheirm: so, play that out for me. you walk into a conventional pub and, what happens? >> ogbonnaya: think of clint eastwood in a western movie. like, everyone looks at the door swinging-- "who's that guy?" that's how-- that's how i felt in some pubs i walked in. >> wertheirm: piano stops playing? >> ogbonnaya: absolutely. absolutely. >> wertheirm: four years ago, clement bought up a neighborhood joint destined to be turned into an apartment block or a mini- market. >> ogbonnaya: pubs play a massive part in representing the communities, representing the under-represented, the

marginalized, and giving them a space, giving them somewhere where they can actually be, they can congregate, they can share ideas. >> wertheirm: when kids today hear the word "pub," what-- what do you want them to think? >> ogbonnaya: i want them to think, "that's-- that's a space for me. that's a space where i can be. that's a space where i can celebrate. that's a space where i can hang out, i can laugh, i can mourn." >> wertheirm: that's what you're going for, when you opened this place. >> ogbonnaya: i just-- i just love seeing the melting pot that is london reflected in this pub. >> wertheirm: and herein might lie the key to the pub's survival: cater to an evolving and ever-changing britain, and beer and good cheer might well flow in equal measure. those pints, after all, aren't going to drink themselves. ( ticking )

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>> stahl: i'm lesley stahl. thanks for joining us. we'll be back next week with a another edition of "60 minutes."

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sang. switch, is that you, homey? callen! anna, no! anna, no. let me check it. callen: don't open the door, there's a bomb! go in there. get him out of there. the bomb is defused. ♪ how do you like it now? ♪ ♪ eat it up ♪ ♪ spit it out ♪ ♪ how do you like it now? ♪ ♪ choking down that tv dinner... ♪ three hours bringing those morons drinks, and they toss me a five-dollar chip like it's made of gold. law school can wait, mom. acting's gonna take off. i'm gonna be 25 fricking years old