The Winery Pierre Bernault of Bordeaux

The focus of the symposium, unsurprisingly, was on the challenges posed by climate change. As if to illustrate the immediacy of the threat, the symposium took place during a heatwave, with temperatures of over 40°C  in Bordeaux and extreme weather events recorded across the coountry: parts of southwest France saw violent storms and winds of 112kph on the evening of 20 June, while vineyards across the Médoc and St-Emilion were damaged by hailstones ‘the size of golfballs’. As Olivier Bernard of D ...

France’s 2022 wine harvest is likely to be between 42.6 million and 45.6m hectolitres, up by 13% to 21% on the frost-hit 2021 vintage and more in-line with the country’s five-year average. One hectolitre is equivalent to 100 litres. Yet drought could impact on yields in the coming weeks, adding extra uncertainty in several regions, said the French agriculture ministry’s Agreste statistics unit. Expected vintage quality isn’t covered by the preliminary outlook. It added the 2022 growing season is ...

Several of those suspected of involvement in the alleged fraud scheme to pass Spanish wine off as French went before Bordeaux’s tribunal correctionnel criminal court on 27 October. Authorities have estimated that 34,587 hectolitres of wine was involved, which is equivalent to around 4.6 million bottles, according to French news publication France Bleu. The wine in question was allegedly sourced in Spain and brought across the border in more than 130 tanker trucks, before being eventually bottled ...