'Catastrophic' harvest for French winemaker due to adverse weather

Bad weather this year has had a "catastrophic" effect on this organic vineyard in western France. At the Les Trois Toits estate near the city of Nantes, this year's scant grape harvest leaves a bitter taste for 52-year-old winemaker Vincent Barbier. The first six months of 2024 have been very wet with little sunshine. Mildew has seriously damaged Barbier's crops, turning the vines' leaves dark brown and destroying the grapes due to the fungus. Barbier, who mainly produces organic muscadet white wine, usually employs 20 people to pick the grapes at this season. But this time, only eight pickers were trying to salvage what they could. The bad weather has walloped wine production in France, with output expected to be 39.3 million hectolitres this year, down 18% from last year, the agriculture ministry recently said. The figure is below an initial range of 40 million-43 million projected last month. The lower wine production was particularly high in the Jura, Charentes, Val de Loire and Beaujolais-Bourgogne regions, the ministry said in a statement. Like other crops, including grains, grapes have suffered from heavy rainfall in France over the past year. The precipitation helped the spread of diseases among vineyards, the ministry said. In addition, many of them experienced so-called coulure, a fall in flowers and young berries due to humid and cool conditions during flowering. (Production: Stephane Mahe, Lucien Libert)