The CIVB has set an ambitious target of all the vineyards of Bordeaux becoming engaged in an environmental certification (from sustainable to organic or biodynamic). Progress is being made; latest figures are at 65% up from just 35% in 2014.

To attain this goal, working with the neighbours is important. The actions of the neighbours can affect you, especially for operations such as sexual confusion, when insect pheromones are used to control moth populations. Cooperation with the natural world is important too. When we think of biodiversity in the vineyard we thing about the birds and the bees, now we’re looking at the bats. 

Natural born killers. 

Out of the 33 French bat species, 22 are present in the Gironde, of particular interest for grape growers are bats that feed on insects. 

Grape growers want them to eat moths. The European grapevine moth and grape berry moth (Eudemis and Cochylis) lay their eggs in vine flowers, and when they hatch, the caterpillars attack flowers and berries. They not only reduce yield also but encourage the bad type of botrytis or grey rot. 

In a single evening, a bat can eat up to 2000 mosquitoes (not a problem for vines but definitely one for me) and 600 moths. Encouraging bats to fly around the vineyard at dusk is thought to be one of the best ways to keep the moth population under control. Dusk is when the moths are active, reproducing and laying eggs. If the bats eat them that means a reduction in the use of insecticides. 

The champion bats are the Common Pipistrelle, the smallest European bat that lives in buildings and woods and the Kuhl’s Pipistrelle that lives in the cracks in stonewall.  The larger, and easily recognisable, Grey Long-eared Bat also hunts insects in fields within a two km range from its home in woodland. In 2015, the Margaux appellation worked with the LPO, their wildlife inventory found 17 different species of bats in the appellation.

Research

A joint project by the French Bird Protection League (LPO), the CIVB, INRA Bordeaux and Elyomis, is assessing just how efficient these bats are and how to encourage these natural assistants.

They have developed an online bat observatory, an app and a geo-location system and the CIVB is releasing a technical notebook for wineries with practical tips for improving the animals’ habitat.

Making them at home

Bats need the right habitat. Saint Emilion and the satellites, the Côtes and parts of the Entre deux Mers are fortunate to have natural underground limestone caves, a perfect habitat.  

Planting trees in hedgerows and amongst the vines develops natural biodiversity, important for shelter but also encouraging insect life. If we want the bats to stay we need to make sure they have insect food all year.

You can also build Bat houses, the Cadillac, Cotes de Bordeaux appellation has instructions for a DIY Bat box on its website for the wineries.

At Château Bellefontaine we have two types of bats ones that live in the belfry – well attic – and others in the woodland. To encourage them, working with the NGO HISA, we have installed special tiles in the new roofs so they can enter and leave, and we’ve built a ‘bat gite’ in the trees near the water, where the insects fly at night. 

We’re looking forward to our first houseguests, and I am looking forward to sitting out at sunset enjoying my aperitif without the company of mosquitoes. 

Want to know more?  If you have enjoyed this post,  sign up here  to receive future blog posts directly to your inbox. If you would like to learn more about Bordeaux, buy your copy of Bordeaux Bootcamp here, to learn more about Wine and Wellness, buy your copy of The Drinking Woman’s Diet here. 

Photo credit @Yohan Charbonnier LPO

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