Important announcement: Moët Hennessy going herbicide free

March time in Touraine – widespread and distressingly
indiscriminate use of weedkiller

 

Today is apparently International Wine Day*, so I am delighted to post some very good news about sustainable viticulture that Moët-Hennessy will cease to use weedkillers in their wine division vineyards from the end of this year. Furthermore this ban will be extended to their Cognac vineyards by the end of 2021.

 

This is a major statement from a prestigious and important wine company. Although it is good to see the many smaller producers who have  ceased to use herbicides with many going organic as witnessed by the number exhibitors at this year's Millésime Bio and its associated events, Moët-Hennessy's decision should have an important boost to changing the acceptability of the use of herbicides. In addition they are investing €20 million into researching sustainable viticulture, although they are not going organic.

 

Here are two news articles on Moët-Hennessy's announcement, which came at Wine Paris.

From The Drinks Business:

'Luxury drinks company Moët Hennessy has announced that its entire wine division will be herbicide-free by the end of the year and it intends to invest €20 million in research into sustainable viticulture.

Its vineyards in Cognac will likewise be herbicide-free in 2021, the group said in a statement adding that it had invested in numerous electric and robotic machines which would be used to mow grass, including the tricky patches directly below the canopy.

Read the rest of the article here.

Union France Monde

Moët Hennessy arrêtera « fin 2020 » l’utilisation des herbicides dans tous ses vignobles de Champagne, et en 2021 dans ceux de la région de Cognac, a annoncé mercredi 12 février son PDG Philippe Schaus lors du salon Wine Paris-Vinexpo.

« Fin 2020 en Champagne, nous allons complètement arrêter les herbicides, et nous allons construire un nouveau centre de recherche et développement en Champagne d’une valeur de 20 millions d’euros  », a déclaré M. Schaus.

« Pour le cognac, nous arrêterons un an plus tard », a précisé le dirigeant, qui a succédé en 2017 à Christophe Navarre à la tête de la filiale vins et spiritueux du groupe de luxe LVMH.

Robots et tracteurs électriques

« Nous remplaçons les herbicides par le désherbage mécanique grâce notamment à des tracteurs électriques et des robots »a-t-il dit.

Lire ici

•••

International Wine Days

* Quite why someone has dreamed up a specific International Wine Day is all rather beyond me. Nor do I have any idea who decided this or how the decision was made. I suspect that it was dreamt up by a PR company during a long liquid lunch or in an idle moment on a quiet Friday afternoon. 

I humbly suggest that every day in the year, including all of January should be an International Wine Day. In a normal year this makes 365 International Wine Days, while in 2020, being a leap year, we are particularly spoilt as we will have 366 International Wine Days!

My wine for the 48th International Wine Day of 2020:  

2017 Riesling, Quinta de Sant'Ana

Following a very interesting visit yesterday morning to the most attractive Quinta de Sant'Ana in Mafra we repaired to Ericeira on the Potruguese Atlantic Coast where we had a really excellent seafood lunch at Ribas. The 2017 Riesling was a delicious partner to our food and is a reminder as to how good the wines from the Lisbon district can be.

Ericeira is popular with surfers. Yesterday it was clear why with huge waves rolling in from the Atlantic.

 

Toxic terroir? - poisoned patrimoine?

A new study casts doubt on the widespread belief that the use of Roundup is not harmful to human health. The study looked at 'adjuvants' – often called inerts that help the active component in the pesticide or herbicide to work more effectively. 

Brief quotes from the study: ‘Pesticides are used throughout the world as mixtures called formulations. They contain adjuvants, which are often kept confidential and are called inerts by the manufacturing companies, plus a declared active principle, which is usually tested alone.’

‘Adjuvants in pesticides are generally declared as inerts, and for this reason they are not tested in long-term regulatory experiments. It is thus very surprising that they amplify up to 1000 times the toxicity of their APs in 100% of the cases where they are indicated to be present by the manufacturer (Table 1). In fact, the differential toxicity between formulations of pesticides and their APs now appears to be a general feature of pesticides toxicology. As we have seen, the role of adjuvants is to increase AP solubility and to protect it from degradation, increasing its half-life, helping cell penetration, and thus enhancing its pesticidal activity [32] and consequently side effects. They can even add their own toxicity [1]. The definition of adjuvants as “inerts” is thus nonsense; even if the US Environmental Protection Agency has recently changed the appellation for “other ingredients,” pesticide adjuvants should be considered as toxic “active” compounds.’

‘It is commonly believed that Roundup is among the safest pesticides. This idea is spread by manufacturers, mostly in the reviews they promote [39, 40], which are often cited in toxicological evaluations of glyphosate-based herbicides. However, Roundup was found in this experiment to be 125 times more toxic than glyphosate. Moreover, despite its reputation, Roundup was by far the most toxic among the herbicides and insecticides tested. This inconsistency between scientific fact and industrial claim may be attributed to huge economic interests, which have been found to falsify health risk assessments and delay health policy decisions [41].’

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3955666/#B11

A sad Touraine vineyard blitzed 

with herbicide: late March 2014

Not only sad but a danger to human health?

Not only does the widespread use of herbicides destory biodiversity but if recent studies are correct they pose a threat to health not only to the people working in the vineyards but also consumers of wines from vineyards treated with herbicides. 

It is often thought that just using herbicides between the vines and grassing over or cultivating the middle of the rows is more acceptable as this is only a limited use of weedkiller. However, if herbicides with their inerts are indeed toxic this may be a grave error as the herbicides may well leach down to the vine roots with the possibility the toxicity will later appear in the grapes and so into the resulting wine. 

Wine labels in certain countries now carry warnings that the contents may contain sulphites as well as health warnings for pregnant women, should they not now carry warnings that potentially toxic chemicals have been used in the vineyards used to produce this wine?