Hail Storms and Grapes
Vineyards in parts of the Saint-Emilion and Entre-Deux-Mers regions lost 100 per cent of their new growth in storms on Monday and Wednesday. Elsewhere, including parts of Médoc and Graves, up to 80 per cent of the 2009 harvest is feared to have been lost.
“Hail attacks are an occasional problem in May but rarely as severely as this,” said Laurent Gapenne, president of the federation of producers of Grands Bordeaux. “Some wine producers are already struggling financially after a small harvest in 2008. For them, this is a catastrophe.”
After receiving damage reports yesterday, M. Gapenne estimated that 20,000 hectares – or 50,000 acres – of vines would produce no or limited grapes this autumn. “This is about 20 per cent of the entire Bordeaux vineyard,” he said.
There is an upside. With the worldwide surplus of wine, and the slump in sales, a smaller Bordeaux harvest will help prevent prices from dropping more than they already have.
Tags: Bordeaux
