KAOLIN, a mineral barrier for vines?

In the vineyard, it’s necessary to regularly take a step back and question certain practices. Rémi Vincent, vineyard manager at Maison Jean Loron (over 200 hectares), is the driving force behind these technical and cultural changes.

Climate change is one of the main challenges of the wine sector: drought and blockages of maturity in summer are damaging to the vine and the harvest. Our Beaujolais vineyard is located above Lyon, so it occupies a central position in France, but southern influences are still very much in evidence.
With that in mind, one of the plots at Brouilly CHÂTEAU DE LA PIERRE was used as an experimental vineyard to test KAOLIN in anticipation of applying this spray over the next 2 summers by our vineyard teams. This dehydrated white clay, which can be used in organic farming as a natural mineral barrier, is sprayed directly on the vines. Applying kaolin as a “sun screen” on the vines should help limit heat stress while preserving the integrity of leaf tissue and basic physiology. We’ll be keeping a close eye on this.

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