For the umpteenth time, hail causes ’carnage’ across French wine regions

s experts had feared, a pool of cold air over the Atlantic collided with a mass of very hot air as it approached France, causing countless thunderstorms over the first few days of summer. Bordeaux was the first to be hit by the storms on Saturday 18 June at midday, particularly Pessac-Léognan and Entre-deux-Mers. On Sunday 19 June, Madiran and Loir-et-Cher became the next eyes of the storm. By Monday evening, on 20 June, another storm of an unprecedented scale had devastated thousands of hectares across Bordeaux and Cognac. “An hour later, I picked up hailstones 6.5 centimetres in size”, said Bordeaux winegrower Laurent Rousseau. The extent of the damage in the Médoc, Blaye and Libourne regions is such that the director of the business department of the Gironde chamber of agriculture Philippe Abadie said, “it's carnage”.

The damage has dealt a serious blow to morale across the industry. Fighting back the tears, one winegrower trembled whilst she recounted her experience on Wednesday 22 June in Coutras at the public crisis meeting to address the latest hailstorms in Gironde: “I am a winegrower in Galgon and we lost almost 80% of the crop on Monday. Everyone is aware that the situation is challenging, both due to natural disasters (frost, mildew, hail...), and marketing issues... You need to realise that some properties could go out of business as a result of what has just happened”. Solutions are being examined by the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Bordeaux wine industry is also considering resources, including a solidarity fund.

On 20 June, the Jurançon appellation was also hit by hailstones, followed by the vineyards of Saint-Pourçain and Mâcon on Tuesday 21 June.