Provence wine producers weigh up losses after deadly wildfires in France
Winemakers in southeastern France who lost vines and equipment in recent wildfires are devastated as prospects of harvesting grapes for the popular rosé wine go up in smoke.
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Wildfires that swept across the hilly region close to the French Riviera are now under control, firefighters said on Monday.
The blaze claimed two lives and scorched more than 7,000 hectares of land.
Some 5,000ha were lost in the Var region, which produces the Côtes de Provence rosé wine that is particularly popular in the United States.
Two hundred of the region’s 4,000 producers are believed to have been badly affected.
“We estimate around 1,000 hectares of vineyards have been affected in the Côte de Provence area,” Eric Pastorino, president of Provence's wine producers' association, the CIVP, told RFI.
Losses of up to €2 million
Winemaker Pierre Audemar lost all his equipment and half of his grape harvest to the flames.
“It’s not possible,” he told France Info television three days after the fire, gazing at the charred remains of his Domaine de la Giscle winery and the stock of 2019 wine stacked up in metal crates now burned to a cinder.
He hopes insurance will cover the economic blow of between “1.5 million and 2 million euros”.
Harvest blues
Paul Giraud also lost all his farming equipment and property. His 25 hectares of vines produce red, white and rosé Côtes de Provence in the hills behind Saint-Tropez,
"I no longer have a grape harvesting machine, a backhoe, a loader for the vineyard, a motor mower. Everything has been burnt," he told France Info.
“I’m a wreck, completely confused,” the 70-year-old said, looking around aimlessly in his La Tourre estate in the hills of the Massif des Maures.
“We harvest at the beginning of September. How am I going to manage? I have nothing left."
Even winegrowers who were fortunate not to lose their estates are concerned that the proximity of the fires will have tainted their grapes with smoke.
"We are only a few days away from the harvest, which is bound to be damaged,” said Guillaume de Chevron Villette, owner of the Reillanne winery.
“We produce a quality rosé wine, so the challenge will surely be to eliminate the risk of a burnt taste in the wine," he told AFP.
A protected area
This part of southeastern France has regular droughts, strong winds and is densely populated, making it particularly at risk from wildfires.
There is also a “lack of maintenance around the plots,” said Chevron Villette. “As we’re in a protected area, we can’t clear the bush”.
The Massif des Maures has been designated a protected area because it is the natural habitat of the rare Hermann’s tortoise.
The National Federation of Agricultural Workers’ Unions (FNSEA) said in a statement that in view of climate change it was "urgent to reconsider the ways we preserve biodiversity in areas like this, which are particularly vulnerable to fire”.
Some winegrowers are now asking for a change in regulations so that landowners near protected forest areas be allowed to clear bushes and create firebreaks.
"We want at the very least to be able to plant vines in the bushes to stop the spread of ashes,” said Benoît Ab-der-Halden, director of Chevron Villet, which represents 14 vineyards in Le Var.
Up to 5 years for next crop
In the meantime, the worst-hit winegrowers will have to wait several years before their next crop of rosé grapes can be harvested.
“When you lose a vineyard you have to leave the ground to rest, then replant,” says Pastorelli. With three years for the vine to start producing again, it will take "five years in all to produce Côtes de Provence wine".
Fire is only the latest disaster to strike French wine producers.
In April, heavy frosts destroyed buds on vines in Burgundy, Bordeaux, Languedoc and the Rhône valley.
Deemed a natural disaster, the French government promised the affected farmers and winemakers one billion euros in aid.
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