in Roussillon, increasingly early harvests and falling yields

The harvest began at the beginning of August, a week in advance, at the Cazes estate, in Rivesaltes, north of Perpignan. Several wine regions are in the same situation, because of the drought and the heat wave, the grapes have ripened faster. So we have to reorganize: “We harvest at night, by machine. This allows us to harvest much fresher grapes. We start around 4 or 5 a.m. and we finish around 10 or 11 a.m.“, explains Lionel Lavail, the director of the Cazes estate, in Rivesaltes, north of Perpignan.

“Perhaps my children will be harvesting on July 14, or even the end of June. I don’t know, but we’ll have to adapt to that!”

Lionel Lavail

at franceinfo

The winegrowers are obliged to reorganize the harvest, but also the recruitment: the Cazes estate employs 70 pickers each year. “We have people who come from Spain or Portugal, who are there to do the harvest and who come especially for that, explains Lionel Lavail. But there, we had them come almost a fortnight earlier, they weren’t all available. It creates a bit of a mess, it’s true.”

>> Alsace: one week before the start of the harvest, winegrowers are short of pickers

At Domaine Pietri Geraud, in Collioure, Laetitia Pietri-Clara, the winemaker, is preparing for a difficult year economically: “I already know that I have a small harvest. It hasn’t rained since March April and it’s been hot since May.“Because of the lack of rain, the vine is in reserve: it can no longer feed the grapes well, which do not grow.”On the raw, on average, we make very small yields: 25 hectoliters per hectare. This year, I think I will shoot between 15 and 18 hectoliters per hectare. I will miss some wine.”

Laetitia Piétri Clara will probably not produce Banyuls this year. She wants to favor dry wines from the Collioure appellation, of which the entire 2021 vintage has been sold. And in the future, its prices will have to increase.

A situation to which we will have to get used to: earliness is a fundamental trend, notes the father of the winegrower, Jean-Michel Pietri.

“When I started harvesting, 30 or 40 years ago, we started the harvest at the end of September and ended in mid-October.”

Jean-Michel Pietri

at franceinfo

“Unfortunately, despite the quality, it is the quantity that will be the problem. If we continue like this, we will have to move to Normandy“, anticipates Jean-Michel Pietri.

>> VIDEO – Climate change: early harvests this year, record production

According to the forecasts of the Ministry of Agriculture, this year, the vineyards of the northern half of France will experience production volumes higher than the average of the last five years, while they will be down in Bordeaux, Languedoc- Roussillon and in part of the Rhone Valley.