Vintners despair after French wildfire ravages grapevines

LE CANNET-DES-MAURES, France — After a wildfire blazed through a once-picturesque nature reserve near the French Riviera, winemakers who grow the region’s celebrated crop are taking stock of the damage.

Rows of charred grapevines stand next to a vast expanse of steaming black vegetation devastated by the fire, which raged for a week in late August. The blaze left two people dead, injured 27 and forced 10,000 people to flee the Var region, not far from the famed coastal resort of SaintTropez. The region is well-known for its Cotes de Provence wines.

At least one small wine estate saw its vines completely destroyed. And the grapes that survived might be too smokedamaged to produce a sellable wine.

Pierre Audemard of the Domaine de la Giscle vineyard lost his cellar full of stock and his equipment in the fire. “We’re receiving hundreds of messages from people who want to buy our wine, but we have nothing left,” he told local broadcaster FranceBleu.

The MDCV wine group, which owns several vineyards in the region affected, considers itself relatively lucky, but is still facing losses.

Some 15% of the vines at the group’s Chateau des Bertrands vineyard burned down.

For the winemakers lucky enough not to have lost their crops, their attention now shifts to the lingering effects that could threaten wine production.

“Even if a vineyard has not been directly touched by the fire, the smoky winds can actually affect the taste of the wine.

Winemakers will only know if they have a sellable product during the vinification process, where they ferment the grape juice, turning it into wine.