Miles in Chablis / 1 minute
The night they lit the vineyard.
A spring frost, a long night and the growers who stayed awake. Then plan a village day in Chablis.
Captions are included in the film. Transcript below.
Read the film transcript
Every spring, in one corner of France, people light fires in their vineyards. On purpose. This is why.
Frost. He comes in April, at night, just as the new buds open. One touch, and a year of wine is gone.
Chablis is the cold northern edge of Burgundy. Chardonnay only just puts up with it. Which makes it his favourite place.
For a long time, he won. By the 1950s, most of the vineyards had been given up.
Then the growers who stayed tried something slightly mad. They lit fires between the rows, and sat up all night. By morning, the buds were still green.
They still do it. So that cold, sharp taste in a Chablis? Somebody stayed up all night for that.
End card: The Suitcase Sommelier. Follow for the next wine story.
Turn the story into a trip
From the vines to the village.
Make Chablis your base for historic cellars, lunch by the Serein and the wine story at La Cité. Reserve the village visits and station transfers before you travel.
Plan a Chablis dayExplore guided Chablis experiences
The film and the real place.
Miles and the film’s scenes are illustrated. The guide uses real destination photographs and researched visitor information. Miles is a fictional travelling companion, not an operator or a firsthand reviewer.
How we research the guidesA little context behind the story
The film personifies spring frost and compresses a longer history. Frost was not the only cause of Chablis’s decline: phylloxera, mildew and the world wars also took their toll. The regional wine body records about 550 hectares under vine in 1955 and the introduction of vineyard heating after the devastating frost of 1957. Read the official Chablis history.
Growers use several frost-protection methods, including candles, heating cables and water spraying. These are responses to weather and vineyard conditions, not a nightly attraction or a visitor experience to book. Chablis’s guide to the region and spring frost (PDF).
Context sources checked 11 October 2026.
There’s another story in the suitcase.
Watch the other Miles films