Allow me to chuckle behind my N95 mask at the sight of these Lady Bug cuvées naively displaying the famous Coccinella septempunctata on their labels. The stylization of the “God’s Beast” can no doubt titillate the visitor passing through an Andy Warhol exhibition, but the cute beetle also plagues many winegrowers struggling with these bucolic molecules of methoxypyrazines evoking the fetid swamp, the damp basement and burnt peanut butter released into the press by a battalion of stray ladybugs. Hence the wearing of N95 to minimize the olfactory range.
If we “seeded” the vineyard again recently with all our might with this famous potato bebitte to stem the proliferation of aphids, which would appear commendable in itself to counter the use of pesticides and green its image in the media, it remains that we thus create an imbalance that the natural environment itself perhaps does not envisage. In other words, three or three thousand ladybugs on the counter certainly do not make for a beautiful springtime for biodiversity. It’s more complicated than that.
Everything is in everything
Monoculture viticulture as we know it in its current productivist form may itself be destined to disappear. “I remember the well-being that emanated from it during stays at the farm of my grandparents at the time. Since 2003, I have simply been trying to reproduce these vivid memories in Italian Abruzzo with Cirelli Farms, a 22-hectare certified agro-organic farm, eight kilometers from the Adriatic coast”, confided to the To have to Francesco Cirelli, met last November in Montreal during his visit to the Raw Wine 2022 show. His enthusiasm is equal to his youthful dreams, but also to his current convictions.
At home, the pastures, alternately reseeded with wheat, barley, sunflower and alfalfa, rub shoulders with olive trees, fig trees and other fruit trees, but also vines, in a plant intertwining that promotes biodiversity. The farmed animals are also based in an agroforestry context conducive to the natural networking of the places. Everything is in everything, there is no escaping it, inside a kind of circular energy observed by Francesco. “This is confirmed, among other things, by the development of mycorrhizae between roots and fungi, an ecosystem whose real reach I see in my vineyard with my pecorinos, trebbianos and montepulcianos grape varieties. » All delicious by the way!
Grape varieties that manage to self-regulate in terms of fruit release, as if the vine naturally knew how to contain its own production capacity. The visible and displayed impact, in short, of a biodiversity soundly articulated in its foundations. In this sense, beware of the old-fashioned discourse of winegrowers who always display an undisguised pride in the fact that they practice “green harvesting” – i.e. the elimination of bunches during veraison – to counter yields that have literally lost his mind. Pissing the vines with shots of fertilizer or transforming entire vineyards into deadly fields without the shadow of an earthworm on the horizon is already a matter of crass recklessness. It will clearly appear that a biodiversity that is under attack today will always be waiting for humans around the corner, in the near future. Have no fear, however, the closing press release delivered by the monks of COP15 has undoubtedly already blacked out the legitimate aspirations of a majority of citizens who only aspire to live a healthy life!
Two pounds
Two books written by two local women, both wine lovers. With his 42e editing, The 2023 wine guide (Éditions de l’Homme) entered the marshalling yard. In other words, it’s over, the wine guides in Quebec. If she took up the pen of her mentor Michel Phaneuf, Nadia Fournier bows out with lucidity, but also remains particularly proud of her passion transmitted over the many vintages suggested to her readers, who appreciated the style devoid of any pretension. His girlfriend Nathalie Richard, on the other hand, is still in the saddle with North American Wine Routes (Ulysses), where she offers nomads wine marked tasting circuits among the most interesting vineyards crossed on their way. Too bad the author’s name doesn’t appear on the cover. She deserves it, however, because there is great work here!