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Vine growing
“The system's power of 120 to 140 kW/ha guarantees efficiency down to -10°C. When it is switched on, the temperature is kept at between 15 and 20°C along the trellising wire”, explains Fabien Queffelec.

Thursday July 02 2020

Electrically heated cables return to Chablis to ward off frost

Next spring, workers at Château Grenouilles, owned by La Chablisienne, will not need to be constantly on hand to light candles or heaters
Vine growing
Thorvald measures 2.4m x 1.2m and moves at a speed of 1.5 metres per second.

Wednesday July 01 2020

An autonomous robot that eliminates downy and powdery mildew overnight

Robot Thorvald has passed its final tests on Chardonnay with flying colours. This spring, it went through the rows of vines and projected (...)
Vine growing
The French company feeds its Tenebrio Molitor worms on cereal by-products.

Wednesday June 24 2020

The first insect-based fertiliser released in the French market

After four years of research in partnership with several institutes, including Bordeaux Sciences Agro, Ÿnsect has become the first company (...)
Vine growing
290 disease resistant grape varieties will be planted. In three years’ time, the twenty best will be replanted on a larger scale.

Friday June 19 2020

Martell plants 123 grape varieties resistant to powdery and downy mildew

As you drive by, the chances are you won’t even notice the 0.5-hectare plot. But to Martell, it’s worth its weight in gold. “On (...)
Vine growing
In addition to the leaves, symptoms are also very visible on the clusters.

Thursday June 18 2020

Bordeaux wine growers struggle to keep on top of mildew

“Every anti-mildew spray costs money and adds to the prevailing gloom”, comments consultant winemaker and director of EnoSens (...)
Vine growing
“Regenerative farming involves agroecology, agroforestry, permaculture...” specified Bernard Pineau.

Friday June 12 2020

Martell, Mumm and Perrier-Jouët head towards phasing out pesticides

French vineyards, “are in an interim period where we are moving away from chemicals. Weed control and systematic treatments are over. (...)
Vine growing
For vine flowering, there is a critical 2-week period.

Wednesday June 10 2020

Temperatures during flowering in 2019 determine 2020 crop yields

For years, research has on various occasions shown a connection between a given climatic factor, such as temperature or rainfall, and key (...)
Friday June 05 2020 - Vine growing by Vitisphere
The red grape variety Rebelia and the white grape variety Recybel.

Alain Bouquet’s first disease-resistant varieties listed in the French catalogue

This is the latest step towards recognition of the visionary work by late French researcher Alain Bouquet on grape varieties resistant to (...)
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Wednesday May 20 2020 - Vine growing by Vitisphere
Time for excitement. On social media, winegrowers have put aside the stress caused by mildew and the inaccessibility of many vineyards to share their best shots of vines in bloom.

Unprecedented - vines bloom exceptionally early across France

Several weeks ahead of schedule, winegrowers have been witnessing the start of flowering in vineyards across France. In the Entre-Deux-Mers (...)
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Thursday May 07 2020 - Vine growing by Vitisphere
“Can you visualise the cameras that follow the ball from the top of large football stadiums? The cable robot works based on the same principles”

A high-tech puppet in the vineyard

In tomorrow’s world, four masts fixed on removable bases could divide your vineyard plots into squares. At the top, winches would wind (...)
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Wednesday May 06 2020 - Vine growing by Vitisphere
A combination of early vine growth and the coronavirus epidemic has made the need for seasonal workers for the 2020 harvest urgent

Lack of foreign seasonal workers causes concern that the French wine industry will run out of manpower

Vines are growing as fast as fears of not having enough manpower to keep them under control. “Some ministries are hell-bent on the idea (...)
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Friday May 01 2020 - Vine growing by Vitisphere
“The majority of vines affected are not like in this photo”, pointed out Philippe Abadie.

Hail takes care of the harvest over thousands of hectares in Bordeaux

After frost and snow, the vineyards of Bordeaux have now had to contend with rain and hailstorms. Late afternoon and into the night on Friday (...)
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Thursday April 30 2020 - Vine growing by Vitisphere
For PDO and PGI wines, “given the impossibility of carrying out some of the checks, products can be awarded an Official Sign of Quality and Origin provided firms are accredited and every aspect of specifications, including the obligation to declare, are complied with”, said INAO.

Physical checks on PDOs and PGIs suspended during lockdown

Singling out the issue for organic Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) and Protected Geographical Indication (PGI)-labelled products, France’s (...)
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Wednesday April 15 2020 - Vine growing by Vitisphere
In the Loire Valley, Célia Brégeon from the Pays de Loire Chamber of Agriculture announced the vines were two to three weeks early, “which needs to be put into perspective because the cold weather forecast for the beginning of April will once again slow down growth”.

French vines still ahead of the growth curve this year

In Languedoc, “On February 29, as I was pruning Grenache vines above Saint-Chinian, at an elevation of 300 metres, buds had burst on (...)
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Thursday April 09 2020 - Vine growing by Vitisphere
On average, installation costs range from €35,000 for 3 hectares with a mobile fan to over €50,000 for 5 hectares for a fixed turbine.

Reluctance by insurers to provide cover forces Cognac growers to equip themselves against frost damage

“If we don't use it, that’s good news for everyone!” exclaimed Didier Bureau, chairman of the Agricultural Equipment (...)
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Wednesday April 08 2020 - Vine growing by Vitisphere
Over the past few days, the sheep have started to take an interest in the vine buds... They will soon be removed from the vineyards, before returning next winter.

Montlouis trials sheep grazing in its vineyards

“We need to ramp up our commitment to agro-ecology. By bringing sheep into our vineyards and sowing green manure, we will improve the (...)
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Monday April 06 2020 - Vine growing by Vitisphere
Muscadet is being kept on its toes and is preparing for more frost this spring and this vintage but also the following vintages as budburst is occurring increasingly earlier.

The battle of endurance against spring frosts has started in France

After a winter more like spring, France’s wine regions are now experiencing a spring more like winter, particularly Muscadet. With bud (...)
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Thursday April 02 2020 - Vine growing by Vitisphere
Vine scorching as seen in Languedoc in 2019.

Research into water stress, genetics and hybridization makes headway

Experts and scientists unanimously agree that in some regions, particularly Occitania in southern France, water availability is constantly (...)
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Monday March 30 2020 - Vine growing by Vitisphere
Frost has wrought damage on vines in the Rhone Valley, Provence and Gard for the first time this year.

Frost hits the vineyards of southern France

The cold snap that has settled over France in recent days has taken its toll on some vineyards. In Var, the damage is very noticeable. “It's (...)
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Tuesday March 10 2020 - Vine growing by Vitisphere
Solar panels installed in vineyards seem to have an impact on the vine's resistance to water stress.

First conclusive results on agrivoltaics in France

Vines thrive under the shade afforded by photovoltaic panels according to preliminary results thrown up by the pilot site in Piolenc, Vaucluse, (...)
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