Languedoc-Roussillon hopes to regain its wine volumes despite the drought
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After a 2021 vintage marked by the april frost episode , which had lowered production to 9.5 million hectoliters, the Languedoc-Roussillon vineyard is planning a return to normal. This year, production will approach 12.5 million, according to Jérôme Despey, president of the Hérault chamber of agriculture and general secretary of the FNSEA.
Despite the strong summer heat waves, the largest French vineyard, covering 235,000 hectares, benefited from “abundant rains in the spring, which allowed the vines to resist during the summer”, explains Matthieu Dubernet, president of the eponymous oenological laboratory. , employing 60 people.
Thermal stress
In terms of volume forecasts, however, he is less optimistic than Jérôme Despey, counting on 10 or 11 million hectolitres. “The vine is certainly resilient. But she had to block the supply of grapes, to cope with thermal and water stress. Some non-irrigated areas have lost up to 60% of their usual quantity”, specifies Olivier Durand, president of Grès de Montpellier and winemaker in Guzargues. The abundant rainfall of the last few days could make it possible to make up for part of the delay, temper several actors.
As a result of the heat waves, the harvests are even earlier than in other years, “some having started at the beginning of August”, notes Jean-Marie Fabre, Aude winegrower and president of Independent Winegrowers . But the quality should be there. “The dry and hot weather ensured a good sanitary state of the vineyard, with beautiful skins on the grapes and the absence of mushrooms”, he describes.
cup size
Access to water and soil quality are emerging as the new challenges for regional viticulture, forced to anticipate the repetition of extreme climatic phenomena. “In 2050, winegrowers who will not have water will no longer be able to cultivate vines in Languedoc,” stresses Olivier Durand. Between heat waves, droughts, mildew, frost, hail, violent episodes are becoming more and more frequent. A “normal” year actually becomes exceptional. “However, only 10% of the Languedoc vineyard is irrigable, recalls Jérôme Despey.
The sector asks the State to set up irrigation solutions and water reservoirs. In the Faugères appellation, the generalization of goblet pruning, allowing the bunches to be shaded, “was able to preserve the size of the grains this year”, observes Nathalie Caumette, president of the ODG Faugères. Other proven agronomic techniques, “optimal rooting of vines and maintenance of grass in winter”.
Soil degradation
Will these traditional methods suffice? Matthieu Dubernet points to a general degradation of the soil in the Languedoc vineyards. The latter would have lost 1% of organic matter in fifteen years, or “28 million tonnes of CO2 released into the atmosphere. To better stimulate the soil, his laboratory advocates sprinkler irrigation, not drip irrigation. “I know that this is not the word of the Water Agency, but the latter does not have an agronomic approach”, he breathes.
“We will not be able to protect the entire vineyard, concludes Jean-Marie Fabre. Limiting the impact of climatic hazards to 15% or 20% is a realistic objective. »
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