2.17

Cost (in billions of U.S. $) of frost damage to French vineyards last year. The painful memories of that destruction were reignited this week as temperatures plunged across French wine regions and frost threatened those vineyards that had begun to bud out. According to The Drinks Business, temperatures in the Sauternes region of Bordeaux may drop to 27° F and in Chablis, Burgundy, to 25° F. Meteorologists predict up to a 62% loss of the 2022 crop if no measures are taken to warm the vineyards with candles or heating towers.