French winegrowers fear for harvest after hail batters prized vineyards
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Version 0 of 1. Some of France's most prestigious vineyards are counting the costs of fierce hailstorms that have battered the Burgundy region for the third consecutive summer. Hailstones as big as golf balls, buffeted by 60mph winds, swept across the Côte de Beaune region on Saturday afternoon, causing winegrowers to predict between 40% and 80% of the grape harvest would be lost. "It's a disaster," said Jean-Louis Moissenet, the president of the Pommard winegrowers' association. "We were gearing up for a good year, but now it's gone by the board." A spokeswoman from the Domaine Chauvenet in Pommard told the Guardian it would take a few days for insurers to determine the extent of the damage. "But it's not just us, everybody in the region is affected," she said. The other vineyards hit by the storms include Volnay, Meursault and Beaune, home to a total of 2,000 winegrowers. The Domaine Chauvenet, which produces Pommard red wine and Beaune Premier Cru, was among the growers to have activated 34 anti-hail vortex generators across the region. Thanks to advance warning, the generators – placed every six square miles – were switched on at 9am. But it remains to be seen whether they were effective against the hailstorms, which lasted for seven minutes. In an industry in which 70% of producers are not insured, some Burgundy winegrowers are beginning to despair after losing 60% of the wine harvest in last year's summer hailstorms. The region's grapes were also pounded by hailstorms in 2012, causing a price rise of 30% on that year's vintage – which is now on sale. And Jean-Pierre Charlot, a winegrower from Volnay, told BFMTV that despite having insured his vines, he was only paid 10% of the value of the grapes he lost last year. |