{"id":578656,"date":"2026-08-01T09:59:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T09:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/578656\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T09:59:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T09:59:14","slug":"irish-wine-geese-vineyards-under-threat-in-bordeaux-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/578656\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish \u2018wine geese\u2019 vineyards under threat in Bordeaux \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

When an acrid haze began drifting over the neat rows of vines that blanket the landscape north of Bordeaux, it was just the latest challenge from a changing climate<\/a> that is toughening conditions for historic vineyards that still bear the names of the Irish \u201cwine geese\u201d.<\/p>\n

Road signs and entrances to elegant chateaux are dotted with names such as Lynch, Phelan, Kirwan and Boyd, the stamp of 18th-century venturers from Ireland who founded vineyards, made their fortunes and left their names on Bordeaux wine bottles to this day.<\/p>\n

Damien Barton Sartorius (35) is the 10th generation of an Irish-French winemaking dynasty that has never lost its Irish links since ancestor Thomas Barton of Co Fermanagh<\/a> arrived in Bordeaux in 1722.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m lucky to have both passports,\u201d Barton Sartorius says from his Bordeaux chateau, home to generations of his family who until recently also kept an Irish base \u2013 his grandfather was born in Straffan House in Co Kildare<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Map:Map: Paul Scott\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

The epicentre of the Gironde wildfire was a 35-minute drive from the Ch\u00e2teau Langoa L\u00e9oville-Barton, where Barton Sartorius lives today with his young family and grandmother, surrounded by fields of vines and a large modernised winemaking operation. <\/p>\n

Shamrocks are painted on the road outside, and in the chateau courtyard is what Barton Sartorius cheerfully describes as a \u201cfake Irish pub\u201d, festooned with tricolours to mark a recent anniversary.<\/p>\n

\"ChateauChateau Leoville Barton, the name of an Irish-French winemaking family begun by the Fermanagh-born Thomas Barton in 1722 and now in its 10th generation. Photograph: Naomi O’Leary \"DamienDamien Barton Sartorius outside his vineyard’s ‘Irish Pub’ and the original family chateau next door. Photograph: Naomi O’Leary <\/p>\n

Barton Sartorius is among the many local winemakers who took water tanks and hoses and went to help fight the blaze when it became clear that firefighters were struggling to contain it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw how the firemen were helpless, because they said: \u2018The water is very far, we\u2019re wasting so much time, there are fires everywhere, we cannot be everywhere\u2019,\u201d he says. \u201cWe got the tractor ready and we went to help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grapes can be spoiled by wildfire smoke \u2013 a problem all too well known to growers across the Atlantic in California \u2013 but it depends on how much smoke there is, how developed the grapes are and how close to the fire, what is burning and what compounds are in the fumes.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018We couldn\u2019t just stay home\u2019: On night patrol with volunteer army fighting Bordeaux wildfiresOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Barton Sartorius is confident that the amount of smoke his vines were exposed to was not enough to have an impact.<\/p>\n

The real problem that Ch\u00e2teau Langoa L\u00e9oville-Barton is facing, he says, is the same one that set the conditions for the fire to take hold: excessive heat and lack of rain.<\/p>\n

\"ExtremeExtreme heat and low rainfall means the grapes are very small and winemakers are hoping for rain before the harvest. Photograph: Naomi O’Leary <\/p>\n

\u201cThis year, we\u2019ve had only 5mm of rain since early June. It\u2019s nothing, it\u2019s like an hour\u2019s worth of rain,\u201d Barton Sartorius says.<\/p>\n

The hot conditions don\u2019t badly affect the taste of the wine: the ch\u00e2teau\u2019s principal variety of cabernet sauvignon is often grown in hot climates. But the without rain, the grapes are fewer and smaller.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year in 2025, and before that in 2022, we had a very, very small harvest. Here we are in the winery,\u201d as Barton Sartorius gestures around to the vast wine barrels and tanks. \u201cOnly half of it was full with grapes. Tiny. We\u2019ve never produced so little wine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year ended up being a nice vintage, but with only a third of their usual production available to sell the chateau struggled to break even.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hardly levelled between our cost of production and our cost of sales. So we actually lost a bit of money this year selling our wine, although it\u2019s an exceptional vintage,\u201d Barton Sartorius says.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur cost of production is very high. But considering the global economy we cannot sell our wine much more expensive. It\u2019s just the way it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like Langoa Barton and Leoville Barton, Ch\u00e2teau Boyd-Cantenac is another wine estate carrying the name of an Irish founder that was included in the Bordeaux wine official classification of 1855 \u2013 a prestigious list commissioned by Emperor Napoleon III that remains a global marker of elite-status wines.<\/p>\n

\"SignsSigns read Kirwan and Boyd in the heart of the Bordeaux region, the names of 18th winemakers from Galway and Belfast whose vineyards continue today. Photograph: Naomi O’Leary \"DamienDamien Barton Sartorius shows some wines made at his family vineyard, run by the Irish-French Barton family since the 18th century. Photograph: Naomi O’Leary <\/p>\n

The original Boyd was James, or Jacques Boyd, a member of a leading Belfast family of merchants originally from Scotland who bought the vineyard in 1754.<\/p>\n

Sandra Arzilier, administrative and commercial manager of Ch\u00e2teau Boyd-Cantenac today, is also optimistic that the grapes will escape any effect from the fire.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough we have noticed the smell of smoke, the ripening period \u2013 the most sensitive stage for contamination of the grapes, particularly as the harvest approaches \u2013 has only just begun,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Bordeaux is also lucky not to be the first to face the issue and can learn from the experience of others. In recent years, the increasingly common issue of \u201csmoke taint\u201d has caused wineries around the world to come up with special processing and filtration practices that can help.<\/p>\n

\u201cOther vineyards around the world \u2013 the United States, Australia, Chile \u2013 have already faced such situations and that effective oenological solutions now exist,\u201d Arzilier says.<\/p>\n

Not far away is Chateau Kirwan, which bears the name of Mark Kirwan, a merchant from one of the tribes of Galway who bought it in 1760. For a century it has been owned by the Sch\u00ffler family, another old Bordeaux winemaking family that kept the Irish name.<\/p>\n

The harvest \u201clooks set to be a very promising one\u201d, says managing director Yann Sch\u00ffler. \u201cThe heat is bringing forward the harvest, which is always a strong indicator of quality.\u201d<\/p>\n

France recently entered its fourth heatwave of the summer. Many winemakers are praying that it is followed by rain.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur main concern at present is the drought,\u201d Sch\u00ffler says. It is putting our young vines under severe strain and significantly reducing the size of the berries, which are set to be very small \u2013 perhaps even smaller than in 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chateau Ph\u00e9lan S\u00e9gur is named for its 18th century founder Bernard O\u2019Phelan from Co Tipperary and its current owners keep close links to Ireland. \u201cOur only point of contention is rugby,\u201d says general manager V\u00e9ronique Dausse.<\/p>\n

Its workers were among those who took pumps and went to help the firefighters tackle the blaze.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fire is subsiding. But it will have serious ecological and economic consequences,\u201d Dausse says. \u201cHere, we were worried about tour cancellations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several vineyards report that tourists pulled out of bookings or asked to reschedule due to concerns about the fire or travel disruption, part of a wider financial impact that France\u2019s economy minister Roland Lescure described as \u201can economic bombshell for a region that doesn\u2019t need one\u201d.<\/p>\n

While businesses closer to the fire are still reopening, those further away are keen for the visitors to return.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to explain to vacationers that the situation is perfectly \u2018normal\u2019 in the vineyards,\u201d Dausse says.<\/p>\n

The Barton Sartorius tractor is now back at the chateau helping prepare the harvest, its firefighting days behind it \u2013 at least for now.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe tractor used by Damien Barton Sartorius to help fight Bordeaux wildfire was back in service as a vine irrigator on Friday. Photograph: Naomi O’Leary \"DamienDamien Barton Sartorius. Photo: Naomi O’Leary <\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re actually using it in the vineyard right now, because the baby vines, the ones that are three years old, they\u2019re very thirsty,\u201d Barton Sartorius says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe best thing anyone can do now is come and visit, because the fire is gone,\u201d he continued. \u201cThe whole region is as beautiful as it was. It\u2019s just sadly we\u2019ve lost some forest. It will regrow. Come and visit, because it\u2019s as nice as it was before.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When an acrid haze began drifting over the neat rows of vines that blanket the landscape north of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578657,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2885,1814,61,60,43,18335],"class_list":["post-578656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-climate-change","tag-france","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news","tag-weather-events"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578656\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}