Pas-de-Calais: The vines of the mining basins benefit from the rise in temperature


by Ardee NAPOLITANO

HAILLICOURT, France (Reuters) – Production of “Charbonnay” from the Pas-de-Calais mining basins is expected to see its volumes triple this year, as rising temperatures have made the local climate more compatible with wine-growing.

The closure of the Pas-de-Calais mines, which stretch for miles west of the Belgian border, worsened the region’s economic decline at the end of the 20th century.

Today, the slag heaps, these artificial hills formed by mining residues, are at the heart of sustainable tourism initiatives and a symbol of the rebirth of the Pas-de-Calais region.

Vines were planted there about ten years ago and in 2018 the first bottles of “Charbonnay” – a pun combining “Chardonnay” and “charbon” – were sold, mainly to locals and to small businesses.

This year, due to the heat, less scorching in the north than in the south of France, production should triple compared to the 10 hectoliters produced in 2021. A figure which however represents only a tiny fraction of the 45.6 million hectoliters estimated at national level.

According to winemaker Olivier Pucek, the climate of this region has long hampered the cultivation of vines, but that is changing.

“Today, we can consider that from this point of view we have progressed. We have summer heat which is more compatible with the work of the vine”, he declared to Reuters on a slag heap in Haillicourt, an hour’s drive from Calais, during the harvest, manual.

It is not the only vineyard in the region. Vines have been planted in a nearby town and, in Belgium, not far from Charleroi, vines planted in 2019 should produce their first cuvée next year.

Ten years ago, Unesco listed hundreds of sites in the mining basin as world heritage sites, considering that they symbolized Europe’s industrial heritage.

“I’m sure it flatters the people who worked for the mine to know that we can make wine, and especially good wine, on these slag heaps,” said Henri Jammet, another winegrower.

(Report Ardee Napolitano, written by Benoît Van Overstraeten; French version Valentine Baldassari, edited by Kate Entringer)



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