Sun, May 28, 2017 page15

• Bordeaux pins hopes for ravaged vineyards on June bloom

  • By Alexandra Lesieur / AFP, SAINT-EMILION, France
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  When a severe, unseasonal cold snap gripped Bordeaux vineyards late last month, winegrowers sprang into action.

  They set fires in thousands of oil drums, positioning them carefully between the rows of budding grapevines in southwest France. Giant fans were deployed to battle the cold, damp air settling on the plants. Helicopters also flew low overhead, in another extravagant attempt to battle freezing condensation.

  In the aftermath of the region’s worst late-season freeze in more than two decades, winemakers are nervously looking forward to the crucial June flowering phase, when pollination occurs.

  

  A winegrower inspects grapevines, which were last month partially destroyed by frost on unseasonally cold night, in Vignonet, France, on May 3.

  Photo: AFP

  The freeze left behind a grim landscape.

  “We have a hangover. Eighty percent of our vineyard was hit by the frost. It’s all our work that has been wiped out,” said Jean-Francois Galhaud, president of the Saint-Emilion Wine Council that represents nearly 1,000 winegrowers, standing before rows of Merlot grapevines with curled and shriveled leaves.

  The bitter cold struck twice within a week last month, ravaging the fragile shoots and buds that had emerged prematurely following mild temperatures in March. This means poor harvests not only for grapes, but also for fruits and vegetables such apples, pears and asparagus.

  Wine producers said they have not experienced such a damaging frost since 1991, when more than half of vineyards in the Bordeaux region were affected.

  Francois Despagne, who produces the Saint-Emilion grand cru Chateau Grand Corbin-Despagne, said 90 percent of his vineyard was damaged by the cold, more than he has seen in 20 years in the business.

  The weather-inflicted damage was felt throughout France and in other parts of Europe, too.

  In Germany, the frost reached all of the country’s vineyards, which is “extremely rare,” said Ernst Buescher, of the German Wine Institute.

  In Italy’s Tuscany region, 20 percent of wine production was destroyed, valued at about US$90 million, according to the agricultural association, Confagricoltura.

  The quality of this year’s grapes depends on the blooms next month, said Stephane Toutoundji, an enologist based in the southwestern town of Libourne, France, who advises winemakers throughout Bordeaux.

  If the buds fail to resume growth between now and next month, the annual harvest would be halved in terms of volume for Bordeaux, costing an estimated 1.5 billion euros (US$1.68 billion) in sales, said CIVB, a wine industry association for the region.

  One thing is certain, the harvest this year will be late.

  “Let’s cross our fingers that we do a 1961, a year with a small harvest that was of very good quality,” Galhaud said.

  However, Toutoundji said that what has survived the freeze is only of “normal quality.”

  To survive this bad patch, help is on hand for winegrowers in the form of partial unemployment benefits, aid for social charges and financial support from local authorities.

  Only a small proportion, 15 percent, of France’s 800,000 hectares of vineyards are insured, mainly because of the high cost of insurance.

  Last year’s abundant harvest in the region is to help fill in some of this year’s gaps, thanks to a program called VCI, through which regulators allow winegrowers to keep approved amounts of wine stocks from a previous year in case of natural catastrophes.

  However, despite the VCI scheme, Bordeaux output is expected to come in at 3 million hectoliters this year, well below an average annual production of 5.4 million hectoliters.

  However, the VCI allowances do not help producers who sell their wine in bulk and do not have stocks to mitigate such shortages.

  Bordeaux growers had been recovering with three good vintage years since suffering a poor year in 2013, making last month’s blow that much more difficult.

  Despite the various near-term relief measures, the weather-inflicted damage lays bare other big challenges facing the winegrowers. Producers in the south of France are frustrated with an increase of cheap Spanish bulk wine, which has sparked several demonstrations in supermarkets in recent months.

  There is also competition from further afield.

  Laetitia Ouspointour, of Chateau Vieux Mougnac in Lussac, worries the region will lose market share to countries such as Australia and South Africa.

  Rising production costs add to the challenge, she said.

  “We will not be able to supply wine, and it will cost more than other wines,” Ouspointour said.
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