(Reuters) Severe weather, including hailstorms, caused serious damage at the weekend in some French wine-producing regions, notably Cognac where up to 8 percent of the vineyard has been badly damaged, producers said on Monday.
Other regions hard hit where Chablis and Beaujolais.
“These hail bursts ravaged many vineyards, making future harvests uncertain or impossible,” FNSEA, France’s largest farm union, said in a statement.
Cognac producers say 5,000 to 6,000 hectares (12,400 to 14,800 acres), amounting to 6-8 percent of the vineyard, were badly damaged by hailstones and heavy showers on Friday evening.
“There are places were they have been 100 percent destroyed,” a spokeswoman for Cognac producers’ group BNIC said.
Some 27.5 millimetres (1.1 inches) of rain and nearly 15 centimetres (5.9 inches) of hail fell in 15 minutes on affected areas, she said. Some wine producers reported hailstones the size of a quail egg, or about 1....
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