Faced with climate change, Mediterranean winegrowers are on the front line with a limited number of possibilities.
Irrigation to secure the harvest, the use of more resistant grape varieties or, when possible, gain height.
This is what some winegrowers have done near Tarerach or Arboussols by taking over vines that were once neglected because they were unprofitable between 400 and 700 meters above sea level.
Catalan oenologist Hervé Sabardeil has seen bigger things.
He went to plant three hectares of vines in Ur, in Cerdanya, at an altitude of 1250 meters.
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On paper, the idea seems excellent.
At altitude it is indeed cooler.
But, to achieve its ends, you have to reinvent everything because, up there, it freezes later and the vegetative cycle is greatly shortened.
It is a fact, below 10 ° C the vines do not grow… “We had to think of a lot of things that we are not used to in the plains”, the winegrower.
“There is the risk of frost until mid-May, instead of mid-April in the plains.
We also had to find land and it is not easy here, especially since we need a particular setting, exposure to the south, sloping land to let the cold slide.
Finally, there had to be water to be able to irrigate because, even if we are in the mountains, it is sometimes very dry.
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Hail in August and game hungry for young shoots
Without forgetting to try to anticipate the calamities which may arise, first of all the hail in August against which the vines are protected by nets, but also deer which are too fond of young shoots. It was therefore necessary to close all the vines. In total, with his partner Vincent Ginestet, Hervé Sabardeil has planted 20,000 vines of Chardonnay and Pinot in high density, with clones that will allow the harvest to be spread out by hand.
“We estimate that we will be able to harvest towards the end of October,” explains the oenologist, one month after the end of the harvest in the plain.
If there are already two other vineyards not far from there, in Llivia and Saint-Léocadie, that of Col Rouge, it is the name of the domain, will be watched like milk on the fire.
It is equipped with a weather station and sensors to monitor in particular the humidity rate, the old enemy of the vine, under hail nets.
Hervé Sabardeil hopes to taste his first wines - they will be white and sparkling - in four years.
All that remains is to build the cellar!
