Viticulture in the face of climatic challenges is Hugo Clément's new hobbyhorse in his monthly meeting, "Sur le front", this Monday September 19 at 9 p.m. on France 5.
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TVMagazine. - Why do you devote your magazine
“
Sur le front
”
to wine and viticulture?
Hugo CLEMENT.
- Our vineyards are no longer adapted to the major changes that are happening, be it late frost episodes, drought or the rise in the alcohol level even though consumers are looking for light wines.
With the documentary "Red alert on wine", we examine on France 5 what this means very concretely for us and for winegrowers.
The solutions and adaptations are more or less virtuous, no doubt it will be necessary to find better places to install the vines, choose more resistant grape varieties, prefer more rustic vines and get out of the clone system.
That's to say?
The majority of the French vines are clones, which does not prevent the quality quite the contrary since these feet give a beautiful homogeneity of taste to the grapes.
But this makes them more vulnerable to change.
To have a healthy ecosystem, you need diversity.
From it comes a capacity for resistance.
We met a nurseryman who is looking for old grape varieties.
We are moving towards a more modest but more resistant viticulture.
“Our vineyards are no longer adapted to the major changes that are happening.
The majority of French vines are clones, which makes them vulnerable”.
Hugo Clement
Many winegrowers have been taken aback this year, should the urgency of saving years of work be pointed out?
As always we highlight problems, challenges and solutions.
An organic winegrower who puts a protective coat on his plot is certainly more virtuous than one who burns liters of kerosene to warm his vines while smoking the neighborhood.
You also highlight the problem of water and the ban on irrigation for AOP wines?
In the United States we show the oversized means deployed to try to maintain a vineyard in an increasingly hostile place.
Former US Army helicopters, very greedy in energy, water the vineyards in California.
In France, AOP vineyards are not allowed to irrigate.
With the heat and drought, winegrowers find themselves forced to artificially lower the alcohol content of their production.
You are journalists, do you also feel like a whistleblower in some way?
I highlight whistleblowers but I don't take the risks they take.
I am paid to do this work while they expose themselves to consequences on their private and professional life.
“I admire the courage of Valérie Murat who is fighting against the massive use of pesticides in Bordeaux”.
Hugo Clement
Which whistleblowers do you admire?
I meet great people every week.
In the field of viticulture, I admire the courage of Valérie Murat, daughter of a Bordeaux winegrower who died of cancer, who is fighting against the massive use of pesticides.
She was ordered to pay more than €120,000 in damages for disparaging Bordeaux wines.
Vineyards are the biggest users of pesticides, but viticulture is also one of the sectors where there are the most conversions to organic farming.
Are you wine lovers?
I hardly ever drink wine.
It's not out of conviction but quite simply because I don't know how to appreciate it.
“When you expose yourself, you have to accept that some people don't like you.
The most aggressive are in the minority, you have to put things into perspective”.
Hugo Clement
Social networks hardly spare you, your commitments are mocked or relativized, how do you live it?
From the moment you expose yourself, you have to accept that some people don't like you.
The most aggressive are in the minority and noisy, their importance must be put into perspective.
Do you share your beliefs with your family, Alexandra Rosenfeld and your granddaughter Jim?
Yes, absolutely, I even have a children's book project.
In the meantime, I'm going out on September 28
Rabbits don't eat carrots
, the result of several years of research and meetings with specialists in animal intelligence.
This book invites us to change the way we look at animals.
We are all affected by social representations that are transmitted from generation to generation.
I am also preparing a special operation around trees to match what they do for us.
Every Wednesday at 7:20 a.m. I provide a column on France Inter without forgetting the activities of my production company.
SEE ALSO - Hugo Clément at Buzz TV Magazine
