From AFP via The Local, May 28:
Winemakers in western France in the famed
Bordeaux and Cognac areas were inspecting damage to their vines on
Sunday after an "unprecedented" storm saw pebble-sized hailstones cause
widespread destruction.
The bad weather struck around midday on Saturday in the Gironde area
where many of France's most well-known red wines originate, as well as
further north in the Charente and Charente-Maritime regions.
"It's a shock, it was a hailstorm of unprecedented violence for 10
minutes," the head of a winegrowers association in the Cotes-de-Bourg
area, Didier Gontier, told Franceinfo radio on Sunday.
He said that an area of around 2,000 hectares had been affected which
could bankrupt some growers, particularly those already affected by a
late frost last year, he added....
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