Just wanted to let you know, I got the joke. I see others did not.
Time for a few folks to grow up a bit. The immature name-calling does nothing to benefit the thread. Take it to PM if you want to sling names at one another, ok?
I have found that sarcasm and a little levity are inevitably taken as brutal insults.
It won’t stop me. People treating a wine board like it’s some life or death intellectual struggle actually makes things more funny IMO.
UH OH !!
2019 smoke damages Burgundy wines
I was in the Aube and Chablis not even two weeks ago and frost was definitely a concern. Christian Moreau was putting blankets on some of his Grand Cru vineyards. At Vouette & Sorbée, they were preparing candles, as they were in Chablis. I took the opportunity to ask the vignerons about insurance for frost. Most have it now, but it wasn’t available in 2016, when April frosts in some cases (e.g., Château de Béru) caused a 100% loss of their grapes for this vintage. Think about that from the perspective of mom-and-pop grape farmers whose main if not sole source of livelihood is their grape crop. The vignerons mentioned that insurance does not come close to covering their losses from frost. For one thing, insurance is expensive. Also, I’m not 100% certain, but insurance may provide some compensation as to the value of the grapes, but this does not include lost profits. It’s really quite tragic and those of us who love these wines should appreciate just how fickle nature can be and how vulnerable the wine producers are to catastrophe.
Very sad. I can’t understand anyone even thinking about making a joke on the subject, but whatever.
This. February was exceptionally warm throughout Europe and everything was way in advance when we were in Italy in mid March. Vignerons in both Italy and CH were extremely nervous. We sat on a lakeside terrace in t-shirts on a Sunday in the Lavaux (CH) and 8 days later they received 6-8 inches of snow.
Wine growers everywhere need to accept that global warming is happening. Frost sucks, but we have modern technology, e.g. wind machines, to deal with it. I know Burgundy is all about tradition, but viticulturists need to start using the tools available to them, vs. contributing to more global warming by burning smudge pots, hay, and everything else.
I think that burg producers now have the means to prevent most frost-related damages. It’s much harder for producers in less popular areas who simply can’t afford the wind machines.
Some remarkable images (drones at dusk, I assume) over the past few days on Instagram. Like the vineyards are on fire. Some plots (more than would be left fallow) apparently left to their own luck - less than worried owners I suppose.
I’d link them if I recalled who posted them.
Deleted.
For any of us non-farmers, imagine that whatever work you do you only get paid once a year, but that some years when that time rolls around, you don’t. Ag’s a bitch.
Funny how air quality govt folks worry that my three 15 year old diesel engines might be putting out unhealthy emissions when I’m protecting 110 acres of grapes.
Champagne started budbreak in some areas in late March this year so things are worrisome. The recent weather has been a nail biter, but a victory in most areas for the vignerons as some vines were lost, but not out of the ordinary or worrisome so far except for the Cote des Bars which has been hit harder. In the big picture, the problem is that frost can still come for another four weeks. As budbreaks come earlier and earlier, the potential for problems rises.
This picture although shocking is what happens when overhead sprinklers are used for frost protection. You can see the sprinkler streams above the trellis in this pic. The ice coats the vines and keeps them slightly above freezing while the ice forms. The key is to keep the water going until all ice is melted. FWIW it takes 55 gallons per acre per MINUTE to protect. For a 100 acre vineyard that’s 5500 gallons/minute. You need a heckofalot of water storage to frost protect.
Alan
Its millionaire’s vineyards. Nobody is getting hurt or losing their homes.
I grew up in a farming community, farmers are always poor and downtrodden, yet they somehow all drive Range rovers and the kids goto private schools
So while i do not wish them any harm, please dont make out like its a natural disaster
Well said, Alan.
Also, many of the winemakers only have their job because of family connections. It’s all very incestuous.
Not all of them are millionaires. And being a ‘millionaire’ doesn’t necessarily mean they are ‘wealthy’. They could have all of their wealth tied up in the land and business, and be cash-poor, which would be a huge bind on a winery. And not all of them got their jobs through family connections.
What if your home burned, and your neighbors said ‘oh, he’ll be fine, he’s the rich guy with all the wine’?
Regardless, whether they are ‘rich’ or got their jobs through connections, it doesn’t seem necessary to joke about their plight.
The level of ignorance combined with callous disregard for a significant loss at some wineries is distressing, but unfortunately not shocking.
Frost destroying crops whether in Burgundy or anywhere else in the world is a natural disaster just like a forest fire, a blizzard, or a flood. I don’t understand this comment at all. Explain to me how this is different than the fires that hit California in many years? Somehow I don’t remember these heartless jokes and comments the last time fire hurt California vineyards and wineries.