Le Cannet-des-Mures: After the fire turned on through a beautiful reserve that was beautifully near the French Riviera, the wine maker who planted a well-known plant the area took a damage stock.
Grapevin lines scorched stood next to the stretch of steaming black vegetation which was destroyed by the fire, which raged for a week at the end of August.
The Kobala killed two dead, injuring 27 and forced around 10,000 people to displaced around the Var area, not far from the famous coastal resort of Saint-Tropez.
At least one small winer plant see the vines destroyed.
And survivors may be too damaged to produce wine that can be sold.
Pierre Audehard from Domaine de la Sarcle Vineyard lost his underground room full of stock and equipment in the fire.
“We received hundreds of messages from people who want to buy our wine, but we have nothing more,” he told the local French-Bleu broadcasters.
The MDCV wine group, which has several vineyards in the affected area, considers itself relatively lucky, but still faces losses.
At 15% of vines at Chateau des Bertrand Vineyard caught fire.
Some rows of wine wine burned separate the remaining fertile and untouched vineyards from the black-blackened forest outside.
Because of efforts by firefighters and layout of vineyards, the fire was stopped in his footsteps.
“Vineyards act like natural fire extinguisher, they separate the wind and prevent the fire from moving from a plot to another plot,” said Maxime Mathon, Head of Communication for MDCV.
Others are not too lucky.
Smaller wineries across the street, located in the thick part of the tree and vegetation, fully consumed by fast moving fire.
When firefighters descended to a vineyard who became cornered by a smoky fire, a family who had lived behind instead of evacuating trying to remove a smaller fire with a garden shovel.
For wine makers who are fortunate enough to not lose their plants, their attention now shifts to the effects of lingering which can threaten their wine production during the upcoming harvest.
“Even if the vineyard has not been touched by fire, the smoky wind can actually affect the taste of wine,” Mathon said.
Winners will only know whether they have products that can be sold during the vinification process, where they ferment wine juice, turn it into wine.
In the industry that gives quality gifts and consistent wine styles originating from the Var area, the concern is that the fire can pollute too much plants for its traditional attributes to produce full results.
“We must have a very strict tasting session for this harvest to ensure that the products we created are as usual high quality,” Mathon said.
This was a very difficult year for French wine, after April Frost’s surprise killed vines and caused 2 billion euros to industrial losses.
A study later by world weather attribution said the frozen dew was made more likely by climate change.
Wine makers in the Var area have long dealed with hot summer and the risk of fire, and the latest fire is among several to reach the Mediterranean region of this summer.
Scientists say that the world will see more and more extreme weather events, driven by climate change from coal combustion, oil and natural gas.
At present, the reason Chateau des Bertrand is empty, except a group of horses that are well maintained that slowly graze next to the shape.
While firefighters struggled against the fire, the horses rushed to the trailer to evacuate because the fire grew closer.