Friday 15 October 2010

Burnt Organic Grapes

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No, this is not an offer, but an alarming piece of new for us.

Shortly before the start of the grape harvest, a forest fire threatened the Domaine de la Triballe and the vineyards in several forest clearings. Olivier Durand told us during our visit two years that he was well prepared to face this danger, since he had large water tanks and had cleared the area around the house and the wine cellar of trees and bushes. Since Olivier and Sabine Durand were attending a wine fair in Brussels at the time, it was their daughters, the fire department and the firefighting aircraft who were able to prevent the fire from spreading to the estate.

In spite of this, several vineyards closest to the forest were destroyed. In addition, some of the vines and grapes which were damaged by the smoke and the extinguishing agents cannot be used for wine production this year. After several harvests with low yields, this is one more financial setback for the family, whose only comfort is that it could have been worse.

We will try to support them in the coming years.

Erich Hartl

hartl@weinpur.de

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