The Guardian / UK: Fierce storms that hit France in April will help to push wine production down by more than 10% this year, the ministry of agriculture has said.
Unseasonably cool weather through the spring and into the summer will drag overall production down to 42.9m hectolitres (940m gallons) from 47.8m a year ago, the ministry’s statistical service, Agreste, said on Thursday.
Agreste blamed “the spring freeze that hit certain wine-growing areas, recurring winds made worse by drought around the Mediterranean and damage stemming from frost”.
Champagne was one of the worst-hit regions after several bouts of spring frost and hailstorms which are forecast to drag output down by as much as a third, leading to harvesting being already a week behind schedule based on a 10-year average. An even larger fall is likely to beset the Loire valley.
The inclement weather means France, which has also had to battle outbreaks of rot and mildew, will probably remain behind Italy, which last year claimed the crown as the world’s biggest wine producer.
Jerôme Despey, who heads the wine division of agriculture ministry offshoot FranceAgriMer, said the storms had been “spectacular”, with hailstorms ravaging vast swaths of wine-growing areas “with an intensity which laid waste entire vineyards” in several regions.
The cold snap will also probably cut production in Beaujolais, Bourgogne and Charentes by about a fifth, with harvests lagging by 10 days or more.
In Languedoc-Roussillon in the deep south, frost hit 2,000 hectares and production will probably fall 9%, with harvests of chardonnay and some rosé wines down 40%.
Despey said drought was taking an additional toll so some producers could bring forward their harvest “to avoid a supplementary impact”.
