2023-06-24 17:00:08
“Your report on the drought is falling apart! » A month after our first visit to the Domaine de Sulauze (Bouches-du-Rhône), Guillaume Lefèvre welcomes us with a good coffee and a broad smile. In four weeks, 100 millimeters of rain fell on the 80 hectares of his farm, including 30 of vines.
Domaine de Sulauze, Saint-Chamas (Bouches-du-Rhône), June 20, 2023. VIVIANE DALES FOR “THE WORLD” Guillaume Lefèvre tops off his vines. For him, the season is already over, he is calm for this summer. Domaine de Sulauze, Saint-Chamas (Bouches-du-Rhône), June 20, 2023. VIVIANE DALLES FOR “THE WORLD”
“There was no violent storm, nor mistral which dried everything. What good rain. The vines are extraordinary, the grapes perfect. There is a very good harvest in prospect. I don’t know if I’ve seen that before.”, ignites the 44-year-old winemaker, installed since 2004 with his wife, Karina, in this dream landscape of Provence. A terroir discreetly lurking between the plain of La Crau and the banks of the Etang de Berre.
At the beginning of May, like all the inhabitants of this territory to the northwest of the pond, between the municipalities of Saint-Chamas, Miramas and Istres, Guillaume Lefèvre feared a hot summer. Like that of its predecessor, marked by prefectural decrees of drought limiting irrigation schedules and up to 40% of the flow of the canals.
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In mid-June, the atmosphere changed. In Sulauze, the canal is no longer pumped to water the “plantiers”, young vines barely planted. Even the drippers that supply the hedges, the only ones installed on the property, are cut. Guillaume and his vineyard manager, Christophe Taton, each on a tractor, take turns to trim the vines that are too dense – “We give them a straight cut like Barracuda”has fun first, tanned skin and flesh-colored tank top – or scribbling the ground between the rows of electric green.
Exceptional heat
“This creates a layer of soft, airy soil that helps retain moisture longer. And it uproots the weeds that could compete with the vine for water and minerals”, completes the second, curly hair and an old AC/DC t-shirt on the back. In the wake of his machine, purslanes and grasses fall back, roots in the air.
Christophe Taton, head of cultivation on the Sulauze estate, scribbles the soils. Aerating the soil provides better insulation and retains moisture. Saint-Chamas (Bouches-du-Rhône), June 20, 2023. VIVIANE DALLES FOR “THE WORLD”
A fan of mountain trips, Guillaume Lefèvre has seen firsthand that the reservoirs of the Alpine foothills, essential sources of water consumption in Provence, are full. As of June 23, the Serre-Ponçon lake is only 1 meter from its maximum coast. “So we already know that the summer will go well”predicts the winegrower, who nevertheless agrees that a few days of rain do nothing to erase the grounds for long-term alert.
At the Joint Syndicate of Crau Groundwater (Symcrau), this underground expanse, on which nearly 300,000 people depend and the factories located in the port area of Fos-sur-Mer, the president, Céline Tramontin, calls for vigilance. “Levels are still low to very low. The last rains arrived late in the season and mainly benefited the vegetation. And since the farmers did not need to water, the water table was not replenished”, she notes. In this flat expanse of farmland and stony deserts, the Symcrau ensures that gravity irrigation of hay supplies 70% of the water table.
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