This is what frost damage looks like in Chablis at one of our wineries, Domaine Louis Poitout. ![[cry.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/8/853b6e76c6e8406be77a6727c2a27ad1672678b3.gif "cry"){kind=small}
We can only hope for European vintners that plant health and mother nature will allow for secondary buds to show up and produce a decent reduced crop.
As we wait it out to assess damage/get reports from just about everywhere in France, Germany, and Switzerland, as well as wait out more cold temps to come, I can’t help but acknowledge/wonder if we are entering a new paradigm of warmer winters and precocious spring times. If so, this is certainly poised to become an ever-more regular event.
The mild winters have also meant disastrous infestations of pests/insects in the Rockies/Appalachia that used to be killed off by proper cold temps and now are rapidly feasting on huge swaths of forest, the likes of which we have never seen.
The balance is oh so fragile…
I don’t want to be an “ecological doomsday bedwetter”, as a friend had once put it, but I cannot ignore the troubling signs of the times. (feel free to insert “Rob needs diapers” jokes here).
As an aside, Rousset in the N Rhone reports no issues for them, but colleagues and apricot orchard growers did get moderately affected.
I guess we are. The regularly absurd hot temperatures in the Arctic will divert wind directions and jet streams and move barriers between temperature zones.
Methinks that if they used frost protection they wouldn’t be having all this trouble.
An update on Champagne. Two days after the frost hit, you can now really tell exactly how much damage was done.
Chardonnay is the most affected variety as it buds first. As I mentioned earlier, low lying areas in the Cote des Blancs are quite damaged and the Aube was also hit hard.
In the Montagne de Reims, Verzenay, Verzy, and Villers-Marmery were the main affected villages. The western side of the Marne Valley was also hit hard though Pinot Meunier (since it buds last) seems to be okay.
Next week should be a challenge as rain is due and it looks like there will be an early morning of sub-zero temperatures. If frost happens again then things could get quite bad.
Looks like snow and -2 celcius in Burgundy for Tues/Wed of next week.
Touche de bois (singe)…
It is farming. C’est la vie.
Pierre Benetiere said that he made out ok near Condrieu. Only areas affected were at the bottom of the hill, with light damage.
Ditto for Jean Dirler in Bergholtz, Alsace. Some frost in low laying areas, but they aren’t complaining…
Should have used protection. Famous last words.
And Italy also got whacked, Danila at Al di la del Fiume in Emilia Romagna emailed me this picture.
Another nearby winery that we work with also got slightly hit, as did our Ligurian guy Andrea Kihlgren. Our new Fronton producer just emailed me to say they’ll be down 50% for 2017.