Mistake at Quiot, or, Careful with that Axe, Eugene

I just came across this news from Domaine Quiot in CNP. As the following link describes, they have lost 7 hectares of vines due to a mistake by an employee. Wow, this really has to hurt a company. I've never heard of this kind of accident before.

http://www.famillequiot.com/blog/2009/06/blog_en_berne_english_version.php?langue=fr

A better case for eco-bio could hardly be made, though of course catastrophic things such as phylloxera or oidium can happen then, too.

Obscured by Clouds,
Mark Lipton

Wow! This makes me want to cry.

[David M. Bueker]

Terrible.

I just came across this news from Domaine Quiot in CNP. As the following link describes, they have lost 7 hectares of vines due to a mistake by an employee. Wow, this really has to hurt a company. I've never heard of this kind of accident before.

http://www.famillequiot.com/blog/2009/06/blog_en_berne_english_version.php?langue=fr

John, while I am not going to make a comparison between grapevines and golf greens, I must say that this kind of thing happens quite frequently on golf courses. The article doesn't say just what the employee did, but I would surmise that a wrong chemical was used. When this kind of thing happens on a golf course, it may impact one season, and perhaps even close the course until the greens can be replaced, and grown in, but grape vines of course take much much longer. That also does not address the loss of much quality for several year even after the vines begin to produce fruit, if they ever do. As Steve said, it makes me want to cry.

Can't imagine how that employee feels.

Can't imagine how that employee feels.

Possibly jobless....ouch!

I'd like to know exactly what he did!

Quite frankly I'm surprised that does not happen more often but in California. With all of the winery workers that cannot read English I could see how it would be easy to mistake herbicide for fertilizer.

"Holy ummagumma! You just sprayed all of the vines with Roundup!"

I recall a similar thing occuring in Barbaresco, where someone contaminated 5 ha of vineyard with Cabernet Sauvignon. It's felt unlikely that the vineyard will recover, though perhaps high-powered weed-killer might work

My sympathies to them though and hoping they can find a way to resurrect the vineyard, even if the solution has to be radical (e.g. dig up and turn the soil)

regards

Ian

p.s. which one's Pink?

Quite frankly I'm surprised that does not happen more often but in California. With all of the winery workers that cannot read English I could see how it would be easy to mistake herbicide for fertilizer.

"Holy ummagumma! You just sprayed all of the vines with Roundup!"

Our lab has worked on similar issues involving animals. In one case, a farmer was using his tractor to fill a long feed trough. After rolling along for a little while, he looked back and noticed that his cows were dropping dead as they ate. Turned out that one of his hired hands had dumped what he thought was a feed supplement into the mix but which was actually phorate, a potent organophosphate pesticide. Can't remember how many he lost but it was significant.