What Will Become of Burgundy Wines Now?
by Kurt Ganapathy
@ 12 Aug 2013
Within 20 minutes, the majority of Burgundy’s 2013 wine harvest were destroyed by a summer hailstorm. The areas that were hit the hardest were Côte de Beaune, Meursault, Pommard, Savigny-les-Beaune, and Volnay. The impact of the ping pong ball-sized hail stones on the vines caused grapes to burst and leaves to be torn violently. It has also been reported that some wineries experienced flooding after the hailstorm, resulting in further damage. Premier cru areas and some grand cru areas were hit by the disaster, resulting in a loss of up to four million bottles.
Winemakers are now worried as the affected vines might take more than a year to fully recover. There are also concerns that wet weather could also further harm the surviving vines.
The freak hailstorm was a result of hot and cold air blowing from the south and north respectively. Earlier in July, wine boards predicted that this year’s harvest would increase by 34 per cent compared to 2012. The 2012 harvest was also heavily affected by problems such as drought, hail, frost, and rain-related diseases that contributed to a bad environment for the grapes to fully develop. Wineries reported about a 40 percent decrease in production, and had been looking forward to an improvement for this year’s harvest.
