Bacchus Takes An Ice Bath In Bordeaux

An April frost could cost local vintners more than $1.1 billion  "Temperatures had fallen so low, there was little we could do”

- Guy Collins, Rudy Ruitenberg, and Thomas Buckley

As temperatures across Bordeaux plunged below freezing in the predawn hours of April 27, the dark vineyards of the Château Canon La Gaffelière lit up like a giant Halloween party. Workers spread out among the tight rows of decades-old vines, igniting bonfires to battle a frost that threatened grapes used to make wines costing $120 per bottle in London or New York. But by dawn, 80 percent of Canon La Gaffelière’s crop was dead on the vines just as they were budding. “We lit the fires, but it wasn’t enough,” says Magali Malet-Serres, the vineyard’s marketing chief. “We soon realized temperatures had fallen so low there was little we could do.” The cold snap will cost winemakers in Bordeaux alone at least €1 billion ($1.1 billion) in what many are calling the biggest disaster in a quarter century. It ravaged vineyards from Bordeaux to Champagne—as well as estates that produce riesling in Germany, sparkling wine in southern Britain, Prosecco in Italy, and apples and cherries across Europe. In France, the frost was the latest blow to an industry that exported €8.25 billion in wine in 2016 but has lost share in recent years.