The violent thunderstorms which occurred at the end of the afternoon and at the beginning of the evening in Burgundy on Tuesday July 11 mainly damaged the vineyards of the South Côte-d’Or. Hailstorms and strong winds hit Meursault and Saint-Aubin.
The violence of the storms that evening had been anticipated by meteorologists, but not the precise location of the phenomena. For the website specialized in monitoring tornadoes and severe thunderstorms Keraunosthe activity around 8 p.m. was described as follows: “Locally, very violent gusts are observed, as in Dijon and its region. Locally again, giant hailstones are reported in the south of the area (north Rhône-Alpes) […] The area covered by occurrences of severe to extreme thunderstorms is remarkable tonight and does not occur every year.”
Benoît Bachelet, winemaker in Saint-Aubin summarizes the action of hail on his vines: “The sustainability of the vine is not at stake, the woods are not attacked. There will be a little loss on this vintage, it is estimated between 30 and 40% of losses on certain plots. But nature is good done, it tends to compensate a little, there are still a lot of bunches left, there was a good initial potential, even if we were impacted, we plan to still have a very good harvest.”
An optimism that contrasts with the intensity of violent climatic events: “On works with nature and we are more and more subject to these extremes: we discovered spring frosts, in 2016, the vineyard had been wiped out. There are these periods of drought, there are violent storms, we go from nothing to everything. evokes Benoît Bachelet. His experience allows him to say that “the vine is a resistant plant, fortunately”
Benoît Bachelet, winegrower in Saint-Aubin, shows here a bunch of grapes impacted by hail • © Zahra Douche – France Télévisions
Lucien Rocault, winegrower in the Hautes-Côtes de Beaune and 1st vice-president of the Côte-d’Or Chamber of Agriculture takes stock of the damage: “We were all impressed to see what was falling, with occasional large hailstones.”
The winemaker details the affected areas: “In Meursault, in the Hautes-Côtes de Beaune, on the Cirey-lès-Nolay side, in Saint-Aubin, a little bit between Nuits-Saint-Georges and Vosne-Romanée and the most affected sector is the South of Dijon. with all the new vineyards and the Cras plateau.”
The weather phenomena that have occurred are difficult to predict in the long term, but according to Lucien Rocault, “We never have a real idea of the intensity of the phenomena. What we can see is that for ten years, it’s been repeated and it’s more and more violent. C is a clearly marked ‘climate change’ phenomenon.”
And these climatic phenomena can be devastating for the vine: “Sometimes, we can lose the fruit of a year’s work in a stormy quarter of an hour. What is complicated is the repetition of these hazards since 2010 when we chained all the disasters that can exist for the vine like hail, frost, drought.”
“Even if we have a good harvest in sight, if we take it to the end, nature reminds us once again that it is she who decides!” Lucien Rocault concluded fatalistically.
Faced with the repetitive aspect of major climatic events for winegrowers, Lucien Rocault believes that “The State must intervene in policies of major changes and support to change our methods in general and especially to find solutions to continue to produce in the face of these climate changes which are more and more violent.”
The summer period is synonymous with stress for winegrowers, on the lookout for weather applications. Indeed, with the rise in temperatures, new storms are announced for Saturday July 15.
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