White grapes affected most by storm

Grapes destined for dry white wine were most affected by last week’s storm in Bordeaux, which will have a knock-on-effect of the pricing of the 2013 vintage.

According to the CIVB, 2013 dry white Bordeaux from Entre-deux-Mers is set to become a rare commodity after a 10-minute hailstorm last Friday destroyed over 7,000 hectares in the area and caused damage to around 20,000 hectares.

“Entre-deux-Mers is where much of Bordeaux’s dry white wine is produced.

“While there is a lot of red wine in stock in Bordeaux, the same does not go for the whites. This storm will certainly affect prices and availability,” CIVB spokesman Christophe Château told news channel France 24.

André Lurton’s Château Bonnet lost grapes to the storm

“The storm was a damaging and dramatic event that could not have come at a worse time,” Château added, comparing it to the frosts of 1991 that destroyed much of the crop in Bordeaux that year.

Last week’s storm proved so powerful, it wrote off 5% of Bordeaux’s total vineyard area, with 10% of the region affected to some degree.

Also in the eye of the storm is Alsace, which suffered a hailstorm on Tuesday causing damage to vineyards in Turckheim and Colmar.

Paul McKirdy, cellarmaster at Turckheim-based Zind Humbrecht, told Decanter.com that around 20% of its vines were damaged by the storm, including parts of its renowned Brand grand cru vineyard.

Despite Bordeaux and Alsace’s misfortune, the outlook is more positive for the rest of France, with Burgundy, Languedoc-Roussillon, Champagne and Corsica all set for a “bumper” harvest, according to the French Ministry of Agriculture.

Overall production across France is set to be up 11% on 2012 to 45.8 million hectolitres.