\n At the Ch\u00e2teau Smith Haut Lafitte outside of Bordeaux, France, winery staff are preparing for the unprecedented as a wildfire rages nearby.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt\u2019s an experience we\u2019ve never underwent before,\u201d Ludovic Fradin, the deputy managing director of the winery, told CNN\u2019s Paula Newton.\n <\/p>\n
\n Fradin said that the winery \u2013 which includes a five-star hotel \u2013 hasn\u2019t received instructions to evacuate the premises just yet, but staff are preparing for the worst.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe are on hold,\u201d Fradin said. \u201cIt\u2019s quite a scary and anxious situation, but we are ready to move if it is necessary and to try to save people and animals.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Fradin said that the Ch\u00e2teau Smith Haut Lafitte has developed a plan in case staff need to move their livestock, which includes cows and llamas. In the meantime, the winery is providing firefighters with pastries and water.\n <\/p>\n
\n The fire\u2019s proximity to France\u2019s famous vineyards near Bordeaux has caused alarm throughout the wine-loving world. Ch\u00e2teau Smith Haut Lafitte produces some of the most highly regarded – and expensive – wines.\n <\/p>\n
\n Forest fires often cause ripe grapes to take on a bitter taste from smoke, an issue known as \u201csmoke taint\u201d in the wine industry. On Saturday, wine expert Nicolle Croft said that she\u2019d received many calls from anxious observers about possible harms to the 2026 vintage.\n <\/p>\n
\n However, Croft told CNN that the grapes around Bordeaux aren\u2019t yet ripe enough to be harmed by smoke. \u201cThe grapes are like very hard, small peas,\u201d she said. \u201cThey aren\u2019t absorbing any aromas.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n However, if the fires continue for longer, the smoke may become a problem. Dr. Phil Crews, a winemaker and chemist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, told CNN on Saturday that as grapes ripen, their sugars could bind with phenols in smoke. The resulting taint is \u201cashy, foul tasting and smelling,\u201d Crews said.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIf the wind is blowing in the direction of the vineyard, then there\u2019s going to be a problem,\u201d said Crews.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the Ch\u00e2teau Smith Haut Lafitte outside of Bordeaux, France, winery staff are preparing for the unprecedented as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":830994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,75,128],"class_list":["post-830993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=830993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/830994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=830993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=830993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=830993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}