FRANCE: SECOND HAIL STORM RAVAGES BORDEAUX

(TheDrinksBusiness) - A second hail storm has cut a swath through Bordeaux, destroying virtually the entire crop of around 100 producers.

The area of Entre-deux-Mers was worst affected by the storm, which hit at around 8.40pm on Friday night and lasted for just 10 minutes.

AFP reports that Bordeaux’s agricultural association, the FDSEA, has estimated that up to 5,000 hectares of vines in the region have been wiped out in the storm, equivalent to 5% of Bordeaux’s annual production.

The vineyards in the eastern Gironde were hit by hailstones “the size of ping-pong balls or quails’ eggs,” FDSEA president Patrick Vasseu told AFP.

Gavin Quinney, owner of Château Bauduc in Entre-Deux-Mers lost “at lest 50%” of his crop to the storm, which, he says, “battered” Entre-Deux-Mers.

“The hail came before the thunder and lightening, so there was very little warning,” Quinney told the drinks business.

“The hail that hit our vineyard wasn’t huge – the stones were around the size of a pound coin, but it was the ferocity of the wind that caused them to do so much damage.

“The morning after I examined the war zone and vineyards the other size of the woods to us were trashed. It was breathtaking – there wasn’t a leaf or a grape in sight; everything was stripped bare,” he added.