It was the frost of 2021 all over again, almost to the day. After a warm, precocious beginning to spring, in the first week of April 2022, temperatures plummeted to -5 degrees Celsius (23 degrees Fahrenheit) and even as cold as -7 degrees C (19 degrees F) in some areas on April 4th. The forecast called for all-hands-on-deck throughout the evenings, as growers lit candles, monitored wind machines, gathered heat blasters, and did whatever they could to try and warm the air around the vines and stave off a repeat of last year’s devastation. Our co-founder, photojournalist Johan Berglund, was on the scene in Pomerol and Saint-Émilion to capture some of the dramatic images of sleepless nights and frantic attempts to save the 2022 vintage before it even started.

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Photography by Johan Berglund
Text by Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW