|
Aubert de Villaine is the uncrowned wine king of Burgundy with his co-owned winery DRC being one of the most coveted estates. With a universal reverence for him and his wines, one would expect him to be snooty and snobbish. I have met him on various occasions at the World Wine Symposium at Villa d’Este where the latest exclusive tasting with his wines costing €2000 each was sold out even after increasing the seats by 40%, disappointing many connoisseurs. I always found him humble and reserved every time I talked with him. I couldn’t resist asking this legend last time how he could remain so humble. He answered,’ I am just a caretaker of the vineyards and land. No matter what and who we are, we can be humbled any time by nature which shows its prowess at every vintage, and in the process giving us challenges and wines with different character year after year.'
What Aubert perhaps fears every harvest, came true for some areas of Burgundy including Chablis last weekend. Unexpected, fierce hailstorms with hails the size of table-tennis balls and torrential rains wiped out some of the best vineyards in the South of Burgundy. This threatened to ruin the crops and create shortage of fine wines from the region in the next two years. Parts of Beaujolais used to grow grapes for Crus Beaujolais were also damaged. But the vineyards in the Cognac-producing southwest were the worst hit during the storm last weekend.
The Chablis area was already facing difficulties after late frosts in April and hail storms a couple of weeks ago. Although the state of emergency has not been declared, winegrowers are hoping a state of natural disaster would be declared that would allow them to receive some compensation, according to local media reports. Perhaps the situation is similar as in India, with less than a fifth of the crops insured against such calamities.
According to The Times, London, the National Farmer Union has said, “These hail bursts ravaged many vineyards, making future harvests uncertain or impossible. Some of the vineyards have been totally wiped out in the freak rains.
India in the reverse gear
In Maharashtra, the farmers face a similar problem of much less crops after a bountiful harvest last year. There has been a big drought in Maharashtra and the government has not released water to wineries but instead kept the influential farmers in the sugar cane sector happy. The demand for water is massive there but the crops of cane are very important and more profitable for the production of sugar as well as filling the pockets of the influential farmers with strong political clout.
Vineyards are thirsting for water and the roots of many are already stressed. If the crops do not get water released, many would be either destroyed or the quantities will be a lot less, according to the viticulturists I talked to. Prices of grapes that touched Rs. 50-60 a kg are expected to fetch Rs. 5-10 a kg more next year, making wines more expensive to make and even more noncompetitive in the international markets. Customarily, the long term contracted farmers end up selling an increasing percentage of their crop to anyone paying higher prices, despite the contracts.
Part of the problem is that during the slowdown of 2008-11, growers were left with the fruit hanging on the vines and suffered heavy losses, many deciding to uproot to change the fruit quality, or variety. Even due to the uprooting, a shortage was anticipated.
No matter how we look at the situation, it is a continuing challenge to face nature and as Villaine so humbly puts it, ‘No matter what and who we are, we can be humbled any time by nature.’ At times like this, the viticulturists and winemakers of both Burgundy and Maharashtra are likely to agree with Aubert Villaine.
Subhash Arora |