Over the past year, bats have gone from unloved animal to devastating threat, thanks to their suspected role as the original carriers of Covid-19 before the novel coronavirus hopscotched to humans. Yet in Bordeaux, one of the world’s top wine regions, they’re being welcomed as heroes.
Writing in a recent Bloomberg blog, Ross Kenneth Urken reports: “As the 2020 harvest started early, a lot is riding on the region’s vintage amid a spate of challenges. After the United States imposed a 25% tariff on several varieties of European still alcohol last October, the value of Bordeaux wine fell 46% in November, with total sales volume dropping 18% according to the Bordeaux Wine Bureau. Covid-19 has exacerbated these difficulties: High-quality 2019 reds are going for as much as 30% less than the previous vintage, because the pandemic hobbled sales.” The pests, European grapevine moth and Grape berry moth, are what inspired Bordeaux winemakers to turn to local bats to help save the day. While studies are still determining how much the winged mammals have helped boost harvest yields and quality, the region’s winemakers have embraced them, figuratively speaking. Other renowned French wine regions are taking note.
Urken goes on to relate: “Last fall, I traveled to Château Lapelletrie in Saint-Émilion to see the animal-assisted winemaking first-hand. Anne Biscaye, a ninth-generation vintner with the aspect of Juliette Binoche, led me underground, into a former quarry, to check out her collaborators. A pair of bats soon flew overhead. At night, dozens would join them to roam above the vineyard in search of insects.
Biscaye is one of several vintners installing wooden nesting boxes around their properties, adding watering holes and leaving grassy strips between vine rows to create a bat-friendly habitat. They are participating in a long-term scientific study to confirm the impact of local bats on two of the most invasive vineyard pests: the European grapevine moth and grape berry moth. Both lead to botrytis, a destructive gray rot.”
Cécile Mallié-Verdier, the winemaker at Château Brethous in Camblanes-et-Meynac says that by eliminating the moths that create gray rot, she can avoid the moldy grapes that might taint her wines, such as the merlot-cabernet sauvignon blend: Cuvée Arpège. She thinks bats may improve overall wine quality and taste as well by obviating the need for some pesticides that risk harming the grapes aromatic profile.
“Nature has become a real partner of the Bordeaux winemakers,” says Bernard Farges, President of the Bourdeaux Wine Bureau. “Bats are the perfect example of a win-win situation.”
Château Lapelletrie’s, Biscaye is firm in dismissing fears of bats caused by the coronavirus pandemic. “I decided to accept working with nature and—from it—let everything take its place,” she says. “Bats, just like birds, are our friends.”
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