The Lot vineyard seriously affected by frost, up to 90% loss

The weather does as it pleases and the winegrowers are toasting. This year again, the freeze knocked around Cahors as in the entire department of Batch over several nights between April 18 and 23, 2024. These frosts arrived with a mass of cold air coming from the east and the Massif Central.

Up to -4°C in the Lot

This frost is not surprising, the old adage “in April don’t uncover yourself by a thread” often turns out to be true, but the heat wave with summer temperatures at the beginning of April caused the vegetation to wake up early. and the arrival of buds in the vines two to three weeks earlier than normal. The already well advanced buds did not resist the temperatures which fell well below freezing, with -2 or -3°C on average, locally reaching -4°C. Some plots were completely destroyed, others held up, depending on their exposure, their altitude and their degree of humidity and air currents.

Lot winegrowers are facing tough blows

All the wine estates in the southwest were affected by this frost: Fronton, Gaillac, Buzet, Marcillac…But the Cahors vineyard would be the most affected.

For wine growers, for 8 years, the hard blows have been coming one after the other: very heavy frosts in 2017, hail in 2018, more frost in 2019, 2020 was a year of respite before the return of frost in 2021, drought and heat in the summer of 2022, a historic attack of mildew in 2023…

On the AOC Cahors

The AOC Cahors was seriously affected by these frosts. Up to 90% of the Cahors vineyard was impacted, the 280 winegrowers were affected. In the valley, frost raged for several nights. The first, from Thursday April 18 to Friday April 19, took several of them by surprise. From this first night of frost, 50% of the vineyard was affected. The following two nights of frost (from Sunday April 21 to Monday April 22 and from Monday to Tuesday April 23) ended up impacting all sectors. Sébastien Sigaud, president of the Union Interprofessionnelle des Vins de Cahors (UIVC) which owns several plots in Prayssac, Soturac and Douelle, only managed to save 25 ha of vines out of 100 of his estates, and mobilized 700 bunches of hay to burn to heat and protect from frost with smoke. A colossal loss of production. “Since 2017, we have had a series of 5 climatic hazards, including 4 frosts in 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2024, and each time, we have had a very weak recovery of the plant,” explains the winegrower.

In Glanes

Same story on the slopes of Glanes in the north of the Lot. Here again, 70% of the vineyard was affected. “we tried to protect, to burn the bales of straw, we watered the vines… We managed to save barely 3% of the affected vineyard” laments Mr. Canet. The heights of Glanes were spared, because they were less exposed, but temperatures dropped to -3.6°C. “All 8 wine growers in Glanes have been affected, it’s difficult for everyone, but it will be even more complicated for the young people who have just set up.” Especially since in Glanes, some wine growers are also walnut producers. And there too the walnut trees and other fruit trees were seriously impacted by the frost. The nuciculture sector, which has just gone through a crisis and saw an improvement coming, is also taking a hit.

In Rocamadour, losses were also very heavy in the vineyard, up to 80% destroyed.

The Coteaux du Quercy

On the southern side of the Lot, the winegrowers of Coteaux du Quercy were a little less impacted, and those of Tarn-et-Garonne were spared, explains Mathieu Quèbre, president of the Syndicat des Vins des Coteaux du Quercy. “We do not yet know to what extent the winegrowers have been affected” adds Mathieu Quèbre.

At Domaine de Cauquelle, located in Saint-Paul-Flaugnac, Emilien Siréjol estimates having lost total production on 6 ha of vines out of the 25 ha of the estate. The number of freezing nights was the hardest to deal with.

“It started on the night of Thursday April 18 to Friday April 19 where the lower vineyard areas were affected, not the plateaus. There was a lull overnight from Friday to Saturday, but on Sunday morning there was frost again. Then during the night from Sunday to Monday, we still had -2.5°, we still managed to protect, but during the night from Monday to Tuesday, it went down to -4°, already at midnight we had 0. The last two hours before daybreak at 6:30 a.m. were terrible: despite the fires, the smoke, there was no wind, we even froze a few plots of plateau” laments Emilien Siréjol. The frost continued during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, “but the damage had already been done the previous nights”.

The winegrower stayed in the vineyards all these nights to feed the bales of hay and straw. And the day to replace them and re-prepare them for the following nights. “All our stock went there, we burned the equivalent of 200 bales of hay and straw, fortunately there is agricultural solidarity to provide us with this and help us.” There is no longer any hope for the harvest, the winegrower will now wait for the redevelopment of his vineyard only for pruning. “I consider myself relatively lucky, there is no disaster, because my plots are scattered, some in valleys, others on plateaus… Colleagues have lost everything,” continues Emilien Siréjol. Since 2017, there has always been something, now we will try to save what is left, hoping that we don’t have hail or another attack of mildew…”

The distress of Lotois winegrowers

Winegrowers hope that the public authorities will hear the farmers’ distress. The wine industry is important in economic terms in the Lot and provides jobs. The emergency aid obtained after the latest agricultural demonstrations has certainly provided a boost, but is not sufficient given the scale of the sector’s difficulties (one million euros was allocated to 200 Lotois winegrowers according to the Prefecture) .

“The profession is being battered from all sides, between agribashing, pests, the climate… Farmers are resilient,” says Emilien Siréjol, “but until when? »

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