Date£º
2014-07-02 16:40 Source£º
decanter Author:
Panos Kakaviatos Translator:
Burgundy winemakers have reported widespread damage to the 2014 harvest after a five minute hailstorm destroyed vines across the region on Saturday afternoon.
Estates are reporting damage affecting up to 40% of the potential 2014 harvest across Meursault, Pommard, Volnay and Beaune at the weekend after ¡®golf ball sized¡¯ hailstones struck the region, despite anti-hail measures being in place.
In Beaune, up to 90% of vines in the Clos des Mouches vineyard are thought to have been damaged by the hail.
Some 34 tube-like generators had been deployed every 10 kilometres in the storm-hit areas, shooting particles of silver iodide and copper acetylacetone into the atmosphere to stop the formation of hailstones but ¡®failed to work¡¯ according to Thiebault Huber of Domaine Huber-Verdereau and president of the Volnay Wine Council.
¡®We are in shock. I do not know why they did not work; perhaps the storm was just too intense and too short for the technology to react¡¯.
Damage thought to be in the region of between 20 and 30% was also sustained as far south as the Cote Chalonnais and in the Cote de Nuits.
The weekend¡¯s storm has dashed hopes of a much-needed bumper 2014 crop. Unlike last year, the 2014 harvest had looked promising with a fine and even flowering and copious grapes on the vines. ¡®We have lost the equivalent of two harvests over the last three years¡¯ Huber said.
Given the compounded losses over the last three years, Huber said that some properties face financial ruin but could not estimate how many.
A meeting to discuss the storm¡¯s full impact is taking place in Burgundy this evening.