Chablis hit by hail

A hailstorm has struck in Chablis on the very eve of the harvest but there appears to be some confusion as to the extent of the damage.

This year’s growing season had been largely hail-free across Burgundy and producers were looking forward to an easy harvest.

The storm, a mixture of heavy rain and hail, came up from the south on the night of Monday 31 August through the vineyards of Irancy and across the southern part of Chablis hitting premier and grand cru sites, particularly Les Clos and Blanchot among the latter.

Nathalie Fevre of Domaine Nathalie & Gilles Fevre, said: “There’s nothing left. We had rain and hail, then hail with more rain, then landslides.”

To add to the uncertainty the damage is reported to have been severe in some areas although it is still unclear how much of the surface area has actually been affected.

One report in Decanter has put the figure as low as 2%, another on Wine-Searcher as bad as 10%-15%.

Louis Moreau of the Burgundy Interprofession, said the damage was “localised” and affected just a “minority” of the vineyard area, “but unfortunately in Chablis it’s the best part of the grands crus and some premier crus.”

Producers are reportedly now rushing to harvest as continued warm weather in France can now lead to rot which will destroy what remains of an otherwise very promising crop.