Photo courtesy of @EmmanuelMacron on twitter
French vineyards
Wine-makers in France had battled over several nights to try to save vineyards, attempting to heat up fields by lighting thousands of small fires and candles near vines and trees.
French Prime Minister Jean Castex has announced a massive bailout package, as grape growers in several regions lost between 30 to 50 per cent of their crops.
Castex says the government will step in with close to 1 billion euros in aid, equivalent to almost $1.5 billion in Canadian currency.
The massive aid package was announced as the country suffers the fallout from a catastrophic frost event in Bordeaux, Burgundy, the Rhone Valley, the Loire and Languedoc.
While these regions may lose up to half their grapes this year, agrologists say some sub-appelations may be even harder hit, such as the Herault region of Languedoc.
At a minimum, experts say a third of French wine production will be lost this year, worth roughly $3 billion Cdn., and raising more concerns over extreme weather events caused by global warming.
“This is probably the greatest agricultural catastrophe of the beginning of the 21st century,” said French agriculture minister Julien Denormandie.
The unseasonal wave of bitter frost and ice hit suddenly after a bout of warm weather, which worsened the damage. The warmth had encouraged vines and fruit trees to develop earlier than usual, only to be withered by the sudden cold.
Wine-makers had battled over several nights to try to save vineyards, attempting to heat up fields by lighting thousands of small fires and candles near vines and trees.
This created the extraordinary spectacle of the night sky lit by rows of flames between the vines.