By Nicole Bonaccorso
A picture taken on May 26, 2018 shows a vine damaged and without leaves in a vineyard in Macau, near Bordeaux following a violent storm in the region. The series of storms in the Bordeaux region ruined thousands of acres of vineyards
Hailstorms ravaged parts of France's (click here) Champagne, Bordeaux and Cognac regions this spring, the latest occuring Saturday, May 26 and Sunday, May 27 in the Bordeaux and Champagne regions respecitively. The hailstorms, which also occured in late April and throughout the month of May, have wiped out a reported eight million bottles' worth of grapes that would have been used to make champagne, according to The Telegraph.
Wine connoisseurs lament as the news comes just a week after hail devastated thousands of acres of Bordeaux vineyards. The same storm damaged thousands of acres in the Cognac region as well, Wine Enthusiast reported. Some winegrowers in the region lost their entire crop for the season.
Vins de Bordeaux, the Bordeaux wine counsel, said, according to Wine Enthusiast, that the event was "all the more dramatic as many of the affected winemakers had already suffered the consequences of the spring frost (late April 2017), which had partially or totally destroyed their harvest."
The lastest storm has damaged 40 to 80 percent of some areas' crops in Bordeaux, according to assessments published at Decanter.com. Overall, 17,544 acres of vines were impacted in the region. In Champagne, a reported 4,500 acres were damaged, and three percent of the region's growing area has been completely destroyed.
"The intensity of the storm is unprecedented," Bourg winemaker Pierre-Henry Cosyns said. "The next day, the ice had still not completely melted."
Champagne Committee communications director Thibault Le Mailloux told The Telegraph that the weekend's hail came at a particularly vulnerable time for the vines, as they were just beginning to flower.
Some experts are comparing this season to the 2013 vintage, which was considered one of the most complicated in the previous 30 years due to a cold, rainy spring that year.
