Vines emerge from dormancy 2 to 3 weeks ahead of normal in the South of France, prompting early fears of frost

he 2026 vintage is already underway in the South of France and the risk of frost damage has got off to an early start. In Fitou and the surrounding area, “virtually everywhere vines are at the woolly bud stage. They are already open on Muscat vines with 2 to 3 leaves separated. That’s two to three weeks early”, explains Aude winegrower Jean-Marie Fabre, chairman of the French independent winegrowers’ federation who is calling for a 4 billion euro investment to physically secure 400,000 hectares of vines against adverse weather events.  

The early start to the season is already a concern as not all vines have been pruned, and neither has all the water from a wet winter been absorbed. Over the past few years, “we didn’t have enough water, now we’ve got too much. The problem is that it wasn’t cold enough this year and the temperature of the soil did not drop”, comments Henri Cases, the winegrower at the helm of Domaine Saint-Martin which has 150 hectares under vine in Leuc in the PGI Pays d’Oc Cité de Carcassonne area, also in Aude. Cases feels that “there is no guarantee that we won’t get frost at the end of March or the beginning of April. If we did get frost, it would be a disaster for the region. Bad luck always comes in threes – we’ve already had hail then a heatwave”. His concerns are echoed by Jérôme Despey, a winegrower in neighbouring Hérault and chairman of its chamber of agriculture. From the Pic Saint Loup area, he reported: “We have Chardonnay vines that have already gone past budburst, two to three weeks early. That’s very concerning”.