Mildew Threat for Bordeaux

When it comes to wine regions that just can't catch a break, Bordeaux is right at the top of the list.

After enduring successive battles with wildfires, storms and frost, this year it's a plague of mildew hitting the world's most famous wine region.

But it's not just Mother Nature hitting the headlines this week – humans have been up to their old tricks too. Read on.

Mildew threat in Bordeaux

A "cocktail" of meteorological conditions in the Bordeaux region are favoring an alarming spread of mildew, according to French wine news website Vitisphere.com. Published at the beginning of the week, the article says one viticultural advisor in the region has "nearly 80 percent of the plots monitored showing mildew".

The sudden rise of cryptogamic attacks (downy and powdery mildew, for instance) are due to a combination of warm weather and rain bought by local storms – the region has even seen hail in isolated locations, particularly in Entre-deux-Mers. "Pessac, Graves, and Entre-deux-Mers are the most affected sectors," said the article.

High growth is combining with sometimes wet and warm conditions, meaning that plant growth after preventative sprays have been put on the vines is – to a degree – unprotected. With conditions favoring vegetal growth, the unprotected surface area can be significant.

“So if it rains four or five days after a 15-day residual treatment, 25 percent of new vegetation is not protected," viticultural consultant Tristan Roze des Ordons, told the publication.

“The development [of mildew] is also spectacular on the bunches. The intensity of the attacks remains relatively low for the time being, but their frequency is increasing very quickly,” added des Ordons.

While the hope is that the region will see a return to more uninterruptedly dry and hot weather, according to the same advisor, the 2023 vintage in Bordeaux is on track to be in the top three of the earliest and hottest in the past decade.

Drought conditions in southern France were already being registered a month ago (see Drought alerts in Southern France).

Château coup d'etat

A controversial, limited-edition wine label is causing a stir in Chile for celebrating the 50th anniversary of the coup d'etat that installed dictator Augusto Pinochet as head of state. The wine – a 2020 Gran Reserva Carmenère with "Liberación Nacional" figuring on the label – was filmed earlier this month coming off a bottling line and shared on social media before being picked up by the national press in the last few days.

The label shows the "Angel of Liberty" breaking the chains of oppression (a symbol of the coup d'etat) with "Liberación Nacional" and the dates 1973 - 2023 above and below the image. As well as the variety, vintage and quality indicator, the four shields of the police, army, navy and the carabineros (Chile's gendarmerie) adorn the lower section of the label.

According to Chilean weekly The Clinic (named for the private healthcare building in London and location of Pinochet's arrest in 1998 on human rights violations), the Chilean air force, navy and carabineros are considering legal action over the unsanctioned use of their shields.

The back label shows César Mendoza (head of the Carabineros de Chile), José Toribio Merino (head of the navy), Pinochet and Gustavo Leigh (head of the air force) saluting, along with the Pinochet quote: “Nothing can prevent history from reinvindicating our work. That will be the hour of victory”. The four men formed Chile's ruling junta from 1973 to 1978.

Left-wing deputy and human rights advocate Lorena Fries told public broadcaster 24 Horas the label, "lacked respect, showed a lack of consideration for what we experienced many years ago, but also for what the victims and their relatives experience every time this kind of thing occurs". Several politicians are calling for charges to be laid.

Lawyer José Luis León Márquez – the only name so far associated with the bottling – told Chilean online news outlet El Mostrador the wine was a small project produced between friends and for online (social media) retail only. A case of six bottles reportedly sells for 38,000 Chilean pesos (US$48).

"I was asked to participate," he said. "The winery made it a condition that, in order to participate, its name was not disclosed."

León Márquez revealed he had been receiving threatening messages.

The wine is not the first to reference the Chilean dictator. El Mostrador pointed to the creation of the Don Augusto and Capitán general brands (both references to Pinochet) by businessman and lawyer Eduardo Arévalo Mateluna in the late 1990s.

With backing from United States and in conjunction with the heads of the other branches of the armed forces, Pinochet (then commander-in-chief of the Chilean army) seized power from the democratically elected left-wing government of Salvador Allende on September 11, 1973. He soon consolidated his personal power, becoming "Supreme Head of the Nation" a year later.

His rule is known for its human rights abuses with thousands of left-wingers, dissidents and suspected sympathizers "disappeared" (arrested and detained without trial, and/or tortured and killed). It is believed nearly 3000 people were murdered and ten times that number tortured by the Chilean military and police forces during Pinochet's reign.

Pinochet was arrested in London in 1998 on charges of human rights violations and held in house arrest in Surrey, outside the city (where he was famously sent a bottle of Scotch whiskey by former British premier, Margaret Thatcher). He was never convicted and died in Santiago, Chile in 2006.

Today, in some quarters of Chilean public life, Pinochet is still lauded – mainly for implementing controversial neoliberal economic reforms during his rule. Meanwhile, former police and army officers are still being charged and convicted for their role in the killings associated with his regime.

Thousands of bottles confiscated by police

More than 5000 bottles of premium wine were confiscated by border police in the northern Misiones province of Argentina, this week, following coordinated raids by police, working in conjunction with the national fraud squad (the AFIP, or Federal Administration of Public Revenue), customs and their counterparts in Brazil.

The bottles, from "major wineries in the country" according to local newspaper, La Voz de Cataratas, were seized from warehouses in Puerto Iguazú (a city at the very northern end of the province, on the triple border between Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay) and Bernardo de Irigoyen, a major frontier crossing between Argentina and Brazil.

In all, 11 addresses were raided by police with the operation reportedly targeting undocumented national and foreign merchandise being smuggled across the border. The confiscated wines and other alcoholic beverages had a total value of 96 million pesos (just over $380,000).

According to the report, police in Brazil seized 2000 bottles of wine in a corresponding swoop on their side of the border.

Misiones is a well-known hotspot for illicit smuggling and robbery (the province often features on these pages - see High-end bottles confiscated on Argentinian border and Thieves bag $800,000 of wine in truck heist in northern Argentina) with the subtropical province roughly equidistant from both Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires, on the border with Paraguay.

Both Brazil and Argentina have worked hard to combat the illicit wine trade in the area over the last few years.

Hauts-de-France produces first white wine

Two white wines have made headlines in France for being the first commercially available labels produced from the Hauts-de-France region – the northernmost segment of the country. The wines – both Chardonnays produced from a patchwork of 17 hectares (42 acres) of vineyard around Dompierre-Becquincourt, 140km (86 miles) north of Paris and 40km east of Amiens (and roughly 150km south of Calais on France's northern coastline) – were unveiled just over a week ago.

The label, dubbed "Les 130", has lofty goals. According to a Revue de Vin de France article published earlier this year, it currently covers a total of 86 hectares (210 acres) of vineyard – only a portion of this was harvested last year – across 50 parcels belonging to 49 winegrowers.

The final aim is for the cellars in Dompierre (a former sugar factory – the wider area is known for its sugar beet production) to bring together 130 vignerons (whence the name) across 200 hectares (500 acres) by 2028. Grapes are grown and bought on a négociant format with partner/growers contracted to sell their grapes to the winery. 

The business was stood up by regional heavyweight cereal broker, Ternoveo, which also stood up the winery, the Chai des Hauts-de-France.

The wines, Azimute and Parallèle 50 (the geographical 50th parallel passes just north of Amiens), are both produced from hand-harvested Chardonnay first planted in 2019. According to the Revue de Vin de France, two further cuvées, Fragments and Zénith, aged in barriques, large format oak and concrete eggs, will be released in the future.

The Hauts-de-France region (which covers the departments of the Aisne, Nord, Oise, Pas-de-Calais and the Somme) has no formal appellation or IGP title (although reports suggest the team in Dompierre will petition for its creation), and the wines are produced under the Vin de France moniker.

Current production sits at 40,000 bottles.