In southern France's sun-seared Aude (county), farmers have over recent years been reluctantly digging up vines, spurred on by declining wine consumption and state subsidies, removing a natural, moisture-filled brake against wildfires, reports FRANCE 24.
The loss of vineyards – nearly 5,000 hectares in Aude in the past 12 months alone – and its impact have been laid bare this week as the biggest wildfire in France since 1949 sweeps through the region, fanned by strong winds and parched vegetation.
On Thursday, around 2,000 firefighters battled to control a blaze that has burned an area bigger than Paris, scorching homes, forest and farmland, and killing one person.
Gusting winds saw the fire's front lines jump hundreds of metres across a tinder-box landscape at a time, with the blaze at one stage advancing at 5kph. But local winemakers and mayors are also blaming the loss of vineyards for the fire's rapid spread.
"It's very striking that everywhere where there were vineyards, the fire was for the most part stopped," French Prime Minister François Bayrou told growers on Wednesday as he visited the fire zone.
The wildfire has charred some vineyards. But in many areas, neatly-manicured rows of vines and scrub-free soils survived as the fire burned around them, even if their grapes were destroyed.
Baptiste Cabal, whose family cultivates 60 hectares in Saint-Laurent-de-La-Cabrerisse, at the epicentre of the blaze, said ripped-up vineyards were often left fallow, overtaken by scrub and brush.
Aude, part of the historic Corbières wine belt known for its rich, aromatic reds, has lost 7 percent of its vineyards this year alone, extending a steady decline in recent decades.
The government is paying growers €4,000 (USD 4,661.60) per hectare to tear up their vines to lower production to curb excess supply as drinking habits change.
Read more of this report from FRANCE 24.