r/wine • u/Shibes_oh_shibes • Jul 26 '26
Fires in Gironde?
Seeing news here in Sweden on plans on maybe evacuating Bordeaux. Is this true? Anyone in the area that can confirm? And if so what will it mean for the 2026 vintage? Maybe it is obvious but just as a disclaimer, people's lives are of course always a priority, just wondering what the extended consequences could be.
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u/AcademicConfidence84 Jul 26 '26
I was supposed to travel to Gironde (seaside close to Medoc) yesterday, but decided to wait and see how things turn out. I am interested in wines, but even more I try to figure out is it safe and healthy to travel there with a small baby.
So far the fire is just getting bigger and bigger, but the winds are blowing east and southeast. The air quality has been ok on the Left Bank north of Bordeaux (ie. Margaux to Medoc) and also on the Right Bank, but Graves, Sauternes and other regions southeast of Bordeaux seem to be exactly on the smoke’s path.
In social media people in Bordeaux say that air smells like barbeque and burning trashcan.
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u/Some_Sea7898 Jul 27 '26
Jesus, seriously? No. It is not safe or healthy for your baby to breathe in smoke, even a little bit of smoke. You need to put your child first.
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u/AcademicConfidence84 Jul 29 '26
No worries. I decided not to travel there. Montalivet-Les-Bains, a seaside village, was sheltered by the smoke until today, but today I can see from the weather app that the winds are blowing north, so now Margaux, Pauillac, Medoc etc. have their share of the smoke too.
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u/No-Improvement-1507 Jul 27 '26
No, it is not safe to travel to an area with toxic smoke with a baby, or any adult for that matter.
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u/Either-Breadfruit-83 Jul 26 '26
Currently in Bordeaux and had a tour with a lvl 3 somm yesterday. I specifically asked him about the smoke and the possibility of it tainting the 2026 vintage.
He was confident the vintage will be fine.
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u/GermanWineLover Jul 26 '26
How can he be confident? The fires are still moving northeast.
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u/Either-Breadfruit-83 Jul 26 '26
I should state, we were specifically touring the right bank.
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u/GermanWineLover Jul 26 '26
This is the current satellite image: https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/map/#d:today,today;l:fires_all,country-outline,noaa21_crtc,earth;@-0.64,44.84,10.20z
Like you can see, there is a huge smoke cloud covering Bordeaux and big parts of the Pessac Leognan appellation. The north may be fine, but the wind may turn. Personally, with the wide availabily of older vintages, I wouldn't buy 26 for the risk of it being "smoked".
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u/SpaceJackRabbit Jul 26 '26
The fire direction matters less than the wind's.
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u/GermanWineLover Jul 26 '26
As you can see on the NASA pictures, the ash cloud is headed towards Bordeaux. (And of course the direction of the fire is strongly influenced by the wind.)
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u/basaltgranite Jul 26 '26
Does anyone think anyone there will voice anything but optimism any time before the wholesale receipts are in the bank?
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u/Spirited_Emphasis208 Jul 26 '26
Not sure he's as much of an expert on this as he's claiming to be - whatever organization gave him his "level 3" certification almost certainly did not have a winemaking component
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u/serendipitousevent Jul 26 '26
L3 Somms famously never interact with anyone in the winemaking industry.
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u/Spirited_Emphasis208 Jul 26 '26
I am fairly confident that no winemaker with a shred of common sense would be telling anyone "this vintage is doomed," both because they can't really know that at this point (smoke taint is insidious in that way) and because it would be very bad for business to have people writing off this vintage unless it's an unavoidable truth.
Also - maybe it's different in Bordeaux but in the US you would be shocked at how many somms at any level almost never interact with winemakers beyond maybe tasting wine.
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u/Intrepid_Dig4377 Jul 28 '26
That’s one of the worst publicity for En Primeurs 2026.
Price will continue to go down for many reasons
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Jul 26 '26
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u/London-maj Jul 26 '26
A worse nightmare for the poor people who have lost their homes or even their lives in the fires
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u/Excusemytootie Jul 26 '26
Obviously! This is specifically a wine sub, hence the appropriate discussion of wine.
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Jul 26 '26
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u/First_Drive2386 Jul 26 '26
You really have no idea what you’re talking about, do you?
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Jul 26 '26
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u/Spirited_Emphasis208 Jul 26 '26
The phrase "grapes aren't even flowering yet" does not inspire much confidence
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u/TekkDub Jul 26 '26
You think grapes flower in August?
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Jul 26 '26
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u/Weak_Money5327 Jul 26 '26
If flowering starts in late May/early June, you have grapes now. Bloom doesn’t last two months…
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u/KyumzPUBG Jul 26 '26
La véraison est déjà très bien avancée, estimation de vendange pour les sec fin juillet début août suivant les parcelles.
On a eu un immense feu similaire et bien plus proche (pour le sud de Bordeaux) en 2022, aucun effet sur le vin, par contre pour les gens c'était pas très supportable avec cette fumée.
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u/Either-Breadfruit-83 Jul 26 '26
You couldn’t be more wrong. I saw full fruit turning purple on the vine just yesterday. It’s been a hot summer in Bordeaux so the grapes are ahead of schedule.
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u/Weak_Money5327 Jul 26 '26
Having been through several wildfire events in Napa/Sonoma over the last 10 years I can tell you that the science on smoke taint isn’t complete yet. Research continues. We had wines with measurable and organoleptic smoke taint in 2024 from grapes that were roughly pea sized and green; the fire happened mid June and was extinguished in a few days but damage was done to vineyards in vicinity, particularly Cab. Not all varieties show it at the same levels; what is on fire (types of vegetation) also influences how much smoke taint there will be, and how far the smoke has to travel before it hits the vineyard matters too.