Frosts hit French wine

FRANCE faces its poorest wine harvest since 1945 after an unusually mild March and frosty April, experts said yesterday.

“We thought there would be a little less, there’s a lot less,” said Jérôme Despey, head of a governmental wine advisory board. The agriculture ministry said output was expected to total 37.2 million hectolitres, 18 per cent less than 2016 and 17 per cent below the average over the past five years.

Mr Despey told news agency AFP he expected a 40 per cent fall in output in the prime wine-growing region of Bordeaux. Vineyards in north-eastern Alsace, which produces mainly white wines, were also hit.