The cost of a Bordeaux hail storm

Vineyards all over the world can fall prey to the ravages of the elements. In the New World, the main problem is drought; in the Old World, it's frost and hail.

I owned a vineyard in Bordeaux from 1990 to 2005. In my second year (not my first, luckily), a frost driven by cold north winds from Russia hit the area in late April and destroyed 70-80 per cent of everyone's crop in just 15 minutes. The rich and famous (notably Chateau Petrus) had helicopters to help the air circulate - all that happened was that more cold air was driven onto the vines,

causing even more damage.

To make matters worse the tiny crop that did survive was terrible. Several struggling vignerons actually shot themselves in the weeks following the frost.

Wine-growers can insure themselves against these climatic extremes, but with a premium of about 3 per cent of the insured value for each wine category, very few can afford it.

The most severe threat of all is hail. Not the hail that we are used to, but hail the size of golf balls, even tennis balls. A few years ago, a resident of Bergerac had his brand new Bentley completely written off by hail, so it's not hard to imagine the damage it can do to vines.

Bordeaux was hit again earlier this month with its worst hailstorm for 10 years. In St Emilion alone, 3,000 hectares of vines