Grape picking in Champagne began on 5 September during a heatwave, with four worker’s deaths attributed to the high temperatures, which reached more than 35 °C during the first week of the harvest. Temperatures have been high enough that there have been several reports of pickers being overcome by the extreme heat, with four people dying last week in what Champagne’s local paper l’Union says are incidents related to the high temperatures. One of the victims who died on 5 September was a man in his forties who collapsed after suffering cardiac arrest in the vineyards in Vitry-en-Perthois. It has since been reported that on 8 September, a 19-year-old man from Rémois died following a fall from an enjambeur – one of the tall specialist tractors that straddle the narrow rows of vines – on plots of vineyard in Rilly–la-Montagne. Maxime Toubart, president of the SGV, the main growers’ union in Champagne, is quoted as saying: “It’s the first time this has happened and the first time it’s been this hot [in September]. We are not used to harvesting in temperatures like this.” While acknowledging the extreme heat in the first week of picking, with temperatures reaching between 35-38 °C the previous Sunday (9 September), Hennelore Chamaux, directrice generale at Champagne Castelnau, said it was too early to know whether the weather was the main cause of the deaths. “It was very hot, some started picking later in the evening using headlamps, or else very early. Fortunately, this week, after
This Article was originally published on The Drink Business - Wine
