French winemakers have suffered the worst frost damage to their crops since the 1990s as fears grow that grape vines could yield the smallest harvest for 40 years.
The damage done by several nights’ of frost this week threatens to destroy grape harvests in some of the country’s best-known and prestigious wine-producing regions.
Farmers across the country lit thousands of small fires near their crops this week in a bid to protect vines and fruit trees from frost and prevent freezing.
French winemakers have suffered the worst frost damage to their crops since the 1990s (Pictured: A farmer lights a small fire to protect his vineyard from frost damage)
The government is already readying an emergency rescue package after the unusual freezing temperatures left the country’s winemakers ‘shattered’ and ‘desperate’.
French farmers, from the Bordeaux region in the southwest to the Burgundy and Rhone valley in the east, were out in their fields on Friday inspecting the destruction to their crops following the cold snap.
‘It breaks like glass because there’s no water inside,’ Dominique Guignard, a wine maker in the Graves area near Bordeaux, told AFP as he rubbed the first shoots on his vines.
‘It’s completely dried out, there’s no life inside,’ said Guignard, who heads a group of producers in Graves, which is known for its robust red wine.
The damage done by several nights’ of frost this week threatens to destroy grape vines and could lead to the smallest French wine harvest in 40 years. (Pictured: French winemaker Remy Nodin looks at his vine buds damaged by the frost the night before in Saint-Peray on April 8)
French farmers, from the Bordeaux region in the southwest to the Burgundy and Rhone valley in the east, were out in their fields on Friday inspecting the destruction to their crops
Many industry experts say the frost damage may be the worst since the 1990s.
‘It’s a national phenomenon,’ said Jerome Despey, secretary general of the FNSEA farming union and a winemaker from the Herault region.
‘You can go back in history, there have been (freezing) episodes in 1991, 1997, 2003 but in my opinion it’s beyond all of them.’
In the Rhone valley area, the head of the local wine producers’ body, Philippe Pellaton said that it would be ‘the smallest harvest of the last 40 years’ with losses of 80-90 percent compared with normal.
Winemakers are ‘shattered, desperate,’ he said, with the famed Cote-Rotie area particularly badly hit.
In Burgundy, which produces some of the finest white wines in the world, the head of the local producers’ association estimated that ‘at least 50 percent’ if this year’s harvest had been lost.
The government is already readying an emergency rescue package after the unusual freezing temperatures have left the country’s winemakers ‘shattered’ and ‘desperate’
In a bid to ward off the frost overnight on Tuesday and Wednesday, farmers across the country lit thousands of small fires and candles near their crops to prevent freezing.
The burning was so intense in the southeast that it led to a layer of smog over the region, including over the city of Lyon, and a pollution warning.
As well as vines, fruit trees have also been badly hit along with other crops like beet and rapeseed.
French Agriculture Minister Julien Denormandie told Franceinfo radio late Thursday that the cold snap had been ‘particularly difficult’ for the sector with ‘significant losses’ registered.
‘We are completely mobilised so that the accompanying measures can be put in place as quickly as possible,’ he said.
The practice of lighting fires or candles to prevent frost forming is a long-standing technique used in early spring when the first green shoots are vulnerable to the cold
‘Specifically, we will implement a regime of agricultural disaster,’ saying tax breaks could be envisaged as well as help from banks and insurance and warning that more cold weather could be on the way.
Many wine growers are not insured against frost because of the cost of the coverage, and the industry as a whole has been hit in recent years by tariffs imposed by former US president Donald Trump on French wine as well as Brexit.
The practice of lighting fires or candles near vines or fruit trees to prevent frost forming is a long-standing technique used in early spring when the first green shoots are vulnerable to the cold.
Some winegrowers use wind machines to keep frost from setting in.
Others use water sprinklers to deliberately create ice which acts like a mini-igloo around branches, preventing the frost from drying out the leaves.