Hailstorms spoil wine

VIOLENT hailstorms have ravaged parts of the Bordeaux and Cognac wine regions of southwest France, doing major damage to hundreds of vineyards with thousands of hectares of vines destroyed, producers say.

This comes just a year after the Bordeaux region suffered one of its worst harvests in history with a fall of 39 per cent on year as the result of late frosts, which led to a jump in prices.

Last year France’s total production had fallen to a record low after a series of poor weather incidents.