Recent periods of cold have caused the Limousin vines to suffer greatly. In Haute-Vienne, there are only two vineyards, in Saint Léonard de Noblat and above all in Verneuil-sur-Vienne near Limoges where Marie-Hélène Denis saw almost all of her 7 hectares of hillsides affected by frost .
Look “the inflorescences which were all beautiful, all green, everything froze, a week later, it’s all dry“, regrets Marie-Hélène Denis, winegrower in Verneuil-sur-Vienne (87). It was on April 19, after several days of cold, 95% of the vines of this estate on the banks of Vienne were affected by the freeze.
In eight years, this is the fourth time that frost has severely affected the seven hectares of this exploitation. Paraffin candles, antifreeze tower: too expensive for Marie-Hélène Denis. Helpless in the face of the cold, she prefers to support global warming by planting notably of the trees…
“The idea is to bring a little freshness during very hot and very dry periods, thanks to the foliage. Then, at ground level, the roots keep the soil alive, notably thanks to fungi. The vine will be able to benefit from it, and be able to defend itself“, confides Marie-Hélène Denis.
The inflorescences froze everything on the Verneuil-Sur-Vienne farm.
•
© Justine Salles / France Télévisions
With climate change, episodes of late frosts will multiply. What solutions For THE vines of Limousin ? “ We can change the grape varieties, depending on the species, those which will start earlier. At one time, this is what we were looking for, in Limousin, we could say that it was not warm enough for the vines to reach maturity. Now, on the contrary, we will have to have slower species, since we have the sufficient quantity of heat, but it will have to start later”explains Michel Galliot, climatologist and president of Limousin Nature Environnement.
Almost all of its 7 hectares of hillsides affected by frost.
•
© Justine Salles / France Télévisions
Solutions to be found to prevent these repeated freezes from being economically draining THE winegrowers. During the last cold episode in 2017, Marie-Hélène Denis was unable to go out that 4 000 bottles against 30 000 in time normal.
