After a particularly virulent outbreak of mildew this summer, the Bordeaux vineyards are about to turn to revealing the harvest. These started a few days ago for Crémant, which represents only 1% of the vineyard, while they are scheduled for the end of the week for whites.
Pierre-Henri Cosyns, owner of Château Grand-Launay, an organic farm located in the Côtes de Bourg, will wait for his side “end of August” for the whites and “mid-September” for the reds. Also president of the organic winegrowers, Pierre-Henry Cosins received a visit on Monday from the mayor of Bordeaux, Pierre Hurmic (EELV), who wanted to “get out of the borders of Bordeaux” to show his “solidarity with the wine sector, after this disastrous summer. »
“Green” signals for the quality of the 2023 vintage
Bernard Farges, vice-president of the CIVB (Bordeaux Wine Interprofessional Council) says he is “unable” today to deliver the slightest forecast on the volumes that will be harvested, because certain areas of the vineyard have been very affected by mildew, destroying sometimes almost all of the vines, when others have been spared. “We will have to harvest to see the quantities. The only certainty: “there will be a significant impact on all Merlot, the main grape variety of the Bordeaux vineyard with 60,000 hectares out of 110,000 hectares of vines. »
On quality, Bernard Farges goes further. “What the mildew has destroyed will have no impact on the quality, which promises to be there”, maintains the vice-president of the CIVB. The “signals” for this 2023 vintage are indeed “green”: “there was rain on August 15, which is great for a winegrower because it is a phase where the grapes love to have water . » The heat wave at the beginning of the week should not have time to thwart the progress of the grapes, « which will soon benefit from cooler temperatures, ideal for their maturity. »
“Abandoned vines represent an amplifier of the disease”
In organic since 2012 on his 28-hectare farm, made up of 95% red, Pierre-Henri Cosyns estimates that he has been affected “in the order of 10 to 15%” by mildew, an “oomycete that has long been classified as a fungus but which would fall more under the kingdom of algae. “We were relatively spared because we are not the geographical sector most contaminated by wasteland, and because technically we have mastered the thing for years, with very dedicated and responsive staff, including on Sundays” explains the winemaker.
The problem of abandoned plots of vines is currently at the heart of debates in the Bordeaux vineyards, as it is one of the causes of the virulence of the mildew epidemic this year. To deal with the wine crisis, a plan for uprooting nearly 10,000 hectares of vines was adopted at the start of the year. Worth 57 million euros, it will be financed by the State and the CIVB. In the meantime, many of these plots are no longer exploited and abandoned.
“These abandoned vines represent an amplifier of the disease”, explains Bernard Farges. Pierre-Henry Cosins, who confirms having had plots “contaminated by abandoned vines in the surrounding area”, believes that as an organic winegrower, “it’s infuriating to be polluted in an unintentional way, and not even climatologically, while we try to protect the environment by treating as little as possible. »
“The better you know your plant, the more you are able to protect it”
Are organic farms, “which have tripled in ten years in Bordeaux, and represent more than 25% of the vineyard to date”, recalled Pierre Hurmic, are they more or less resistant to diseases? “When you’re organic, you have a little more difficulty than conventional to protect yourself from disease, but at harvest time you’ll see the reality between organic and non-organic winegrowers,” says Bernard Farges.
“All the vines are concerned, remarks the president of the organic winegrowers. It is not necessarily this or that cultivation method that is concerned, but rather the overall resilience of the farm, because the winegrower also develops reflexes in relation to this disease: the better you know your plant, the more you are able to protect her. And as in organic, “we only have preventive treatments, we are very familiar with the diseases and able to prevent them very quickly” maintains the operator. Problem: “when the disease gets out of control, we are likely to lose everything” since “we have nothing to eradicate. »
Faced with the scale of the epidemic this year, the winegrower recognizes, however, that “we had to carry out more treatments [autorisés dans la viticulture bio] than usual, with Bordeaux mixture and biocontrol. »
A case that Pierre Hurmic will defend before Élisabeth Borne
This Monday, professionals and elected officials agreed that it was not necessary “to stigmatize these winegrowers at the end of their course and who do not have the means to snatch [les vignes] at their expense”, says Pierre-Henry Cosins, but “we must not let this situation spread” believes Pierre Hurmic. “The State must play its role by adopting coercive measures to accelerate this uprooting”, continues the mayor of Bordeaux, who announced that he would address the subject during his meeting with Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne “in fifteen days. “And, just as three Girondin deputies have already done before him, he will also ask him that” the state of agricultural calamity be adopted, which is not recorded to date. »
The vice-president of the CIVB welcomed the initiative of the mayor of Bordeaux to “wish to take stock of the state of the vineyard before his meeting with the Prime Minister. Especially since the themes to be addressed will be numerous, since there is also “the subject of taxes, which the government is considering on alcohol and wines in particular” recalls Bernard Farges. “This behavioral taxation is something that we live with very badly, first because it is not effective, then because it comes in the midst of a crisis for the sector. »