St-Emilion wineries to fund anti-hail ‘launchers’
St-Emilion winemakers agreed to jointly fund a € 1.3m network of semi-automatic ‘launchers’ that use helium balloons to prevent hailstorms.
On Bordeaux’s Right Bank, 37 of the launchers will help protect 7,500ha of vines, spanning St-Emilion and St-Emilion grand cru appellations, along with Lussac St-Emilion and Puisseguin St-Emilion.
‘ Without offering a 100% guarantee, this system should make it possible to greatly reduce the impact of hail,’ said the St-Emilion Wine Council, after 90% of members backed coordinated action.
Fierce hail showers can seriously damage a vineyard within just a few minutes, and parts of St-Emilion and Entre-Deux-Mers were hit in April 2020. The collective St-Emilion system uses a
technique called ‘cloud seeding’. Radar provides an early warning to winemakers by detecting storm fronts up to 30km away. They can then remotely trigger the launchers, which release helium balloons filled with 200g of ‘hygroscopic salts’ into the skies, according to the Council.
Once at a certain altitude, salts are released and help to suppress hail formation, creating rain showers instead.
French firm Selerys will supply the launchers, and some individual châteaux were already using them, a Council spokesperson said.
Winemakers across France have also experimented with other types of anti-hail system. In 2018, French officials approved anti-hail nets for vineyards.