A large column of white smoke rises above the vines, at sunrise on the heights of Conne-de-Labarde, in the Bergerac area. At the Domaine des Verdots, one of the largest in Bergerac with 45 hectares of vines, four employees spent a sleepless night. On the night of Saturday to Sunday April 3, it froze on the vines according to Lise Sadirac, the operations manager : “We started protecting from 3 a.m., it was -1°, we cover the vines with a spray of water which forms a bubble of ice around the buds, and we triggered a second machine to the first time, a fog machine which makes it possible to make a cover above the vines, for the moment it seems to work”.
– Lise Sadirac
The dreaded coming night
What worries Lise Sadirac is the lack of wind, because the wind warms the air near the ground. And its water spray pipes and fog machine cover just three and a half hectares of the farm’s total. The silver lining this year is that the frost came earlier than last year. The buds are still fluffy, not quite out, which might protect them a bit.
– Lise Sadirac
Winegrowers expect even lower temperatures overnight from Sunday to Monday. As for the damage, it is only 24 hours after the frost that we can begin to assess it, to see if the buds are burned or damaged.