Unseasonal cold snap decimates a third of French wine production

Winemakers lit up thousands of candles and small fires to warm up vineyards.
Winemakers lit up thousands of candles and small fires to warm up vineyards. Photo credit: Reuters

An unseasonable cold snap in France has decimated the country's wine industry.

The rare weather event means at least a third of the country's wine production - worth almost 2 billion euro (NZ$3.3b) in sales - will be lost, AFP reports.

The freezing temperatures followed a warm spell - which made matters worse - and led to French winemakers taking desperate measures to save their vines, in some cases lighting thousands of candles and small fires to warm up vineyards.

The government declared the incident an "agricultural disaster".

"This is probably the greatest agricultural catastrophe of the beginning of the 21st century," said French agriculture minister Julien Denormandie.

A number of key winemaking regions - including Bordeaux, Burgundy, the Rhône Valley and Provence - were hit by the cold weather.

Winemaker Michel-Henri Ratte told the Guardian he usually produces 30,000 bottles of wine a year at his vineyard in Arbois, eastern France, but this year he might not produce even one.

"Currently, we’re looking at 100 percent loss on this year’s harvest. We'll know in a month if anything has survived," he told the Guardian.

French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted a photo of vineyards lit by candles, with a message expressing support for farmers.