The year kicked off with a rainy, mild spring in many French regions, allowing vines to develop their foliage strongly. An ideal climate for the proliferation of the pathogens responsible for Esca/BDA and Eutypiosis.

In the middle of the season, a heat wave, even to the point of drought, put a severe strain on the vines. As a result, from August 15 onwards, there was an over-expression of leaf symptoms linked to wood diseases.

Florian Boulisset, who is in charge of Agrauxine's network of experiments on grapevine wood diseases, gives us his point of view:

"2015 ranked as a clement year, with foliar symptom expression averaging 5.2% frequency. 2016 was a record year, with average expression levels of 8.2%, reaching 30% frequency in one plot in the Gers region. In eastern France, the severity of symptoms was historic, according to some winegrowers.

The economic impact is direct for winegrowers, with a loss of yield and altered harvest quality. Added to this are the indirect costs of replacing dead vines and the subsequent loss of harvest.

Agrauxine monitors the evolution of wood diseases in grapevines through its national network of over twenty plots in place since 2012. This enables its teams to evaluate Esquive® WP in the field.