Rivesaltes (France) (AFP)

"We are harvesting earlier and earlier, and that worries me. It is the first time in my life that I have harvested on August 5," says Pierre Ruelle, after weighing a trailer of muscatel in the Pyrénées-Orientales. .

"There it is very early. We have been harvesting since last week in vines that we usually harvest between August 15 and 20. And all the grape varieties are ahead, it is clearly an effect of climate change", notes Jean -Pierre Papy, owner of the Arnaud de Villeneuve de Rivesaltes cooperative cellar, which produces natural sweet wine, AOC Côtes du Roussillon and IGP Côtes catalanes.

Each year, the harvests in the Agly valley, flooded with sun 300 days a year, are the first in France. First the grape varieties of dry white wine. According to the Ministry of Ecological Transition, "on average, the harvest takes place 18 days earlier than 40 years ago" in France and the advance of the harvest date is "an effective marker of global warming"

In one of their plots in Espira-de-l'Agly, a neighboring village of Rivesaltes, Cécile and Jean-Marie Dereu are busy with about twenty grape pickers under a cloudy sky, which gives them a break after days heatwave.

"It's the first time I've seen such a thing, and I've been in the vineyards since I was 17. When I was young, we started the harvest in September. I want to retire but , in my family, no one wants to take over, the young people prefer to stay in offices rather than doing hard work ", plague Jean-Marie Dereu, from a family of winegrowers.

Wearing a headband, despite his 68 years, he works seven days a week, and worries about the yield of his vines.

"It's a year below average, we had so much rain in the spring, catastrophic, we were devastated by mildew (a fungus). Normally, the Tramontana blows and it dries the vines, but this year, no wind. And now it's almost drought. This year we're going to lose money, "he said, getting on his tractor.

- "Atypical" weather -

On some plots, there are hardly any grapes to harvest due to late blight. "We have atypical weather conditions this year," sums up Jean-Pierre Papy, who anticipates a 13% drop in turnover in 2020.

The rise in temperatures is such that he would like to be able to irrigate the vines, by drawing water from the groundwater tables in the Agly valley, which he says are abundant.

The sometimes scorching temperature in August complicates the task of the winegrowers who have to deliver grapes as fresh as possible. The machine harvest takes place at night, and the plots are harvested from daybreak, between 7:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m., to prevent the grain from rising in temperature.

In her laboratory in Rivesaltes, oenologist Anne Tixier observes the “disturbing” upheaval in the rhythm of the harvests, and expects the rise in temperatures to be “detrimental” for wine production.

"We're going to see grape varieties come back from Spain and make wine in England," she said, tasting the first grape juice of the 2020 vintage of muscat petit grain, with the usual lemony aroma.

Climate change invites him to reflect. Should we continue to use the same grape varieties? Should we use hybrid grape varieties?

"We have seen an advance in the harvest for 30 years, we cannot deny the effects of climate change. It is worrying, we must have a reflection for the years to come, we may have to consider other grape varieties for s 'adapt to climate change'.

Pierre Ruel, one of the more than 200 winegrowers in the cooperative, based in Salses-le-Château, does not know what to do with, the horizon is so uncertain. "It would be more profitable to sell the vines than to work them", he laments. But even at the age of 70, passion continues to drive him to continue to operate his vines.

© 2020 AFP