Horrible news. Hail devastates Vouvray.

[Brad Kane]

It's been reported that hail has devastated many of the vineyards in Vouvray this morning with 50% - 100% loss and that the damage was so great to the vines, that next year's crop may also be affected.

Here are two reports.

Drinks Business

The Wine Doctor

 

[Jay Miller]

Shit.

 

[Yule Kim]

Terrible news. I hope the growers will be able to pull through.

 

[Cliff]

[No message]

 

[Yixin]

It's not good news, folks.

 

[SteveTimko]

Wish this kind of bad news could be visited on Bordeaux.

 

[Rahsaan]

originally posted by SteveTimko:
Wish this kind of bad news could be visited on Bordeaux.

Did someone in Bordeaux kill your parents or something?

Otherwise, 100% crop loss (e.g. Pinon) sounds really really harsh.

 

[Larry Stein]

Were other nearby areas hit or did this just affect Vouvray? Very awful and sad.

 

[Tim York]

originally posted by Yule Kim:
Terrible news. I hope the growers will be able to pull through.

Some growers could be in real financial trouble with this following after a pretty small 2012 vintage.

 

[Rahsaan]

originally posted by Larry Stein:
Were other nearby areas hit or did this just affect Vouvray? Very awful and sad.

One of the links above says that it didn't touch Montlouis.

 

[Brad Kane]

Ugh. New reports I've seen say Chinon, Bourgueil and St. Nicolas de Bourgueil were also affected.

 

[Larry Stein]

Chinon, too?! Sucks

 

[Tim York]

Update from Jim Budd http://jimsloire.blogspot.be/2013/06/vouvray-hit-by-hail-early-this-morning.html?spref=fb .

Chinon also badly hit :( .

 

[Jay Miller]

The post-hail photo is pretty horrifying:

Decanter Article

But not as horrifying as this:

"Francois Pinon of Domaine Francois Pinon has also reported all his vineyards have been hit, with near total loss."

 

[VLM]

I feel like we should do something for Francois. Kickstarter?

 

[Jay Miller]

originally posted by VLM:
I feel like we should do something for Francois. Kickstarter?

I'd be in.

 

[Don Rice]

Yes - I've been trying to think of a way to help.

 

[Marc D]

Buy futures of his 2014 Vouvray and fizz?
I'd be in for a few cases.

 

[Bob Parsons Alberta]

Just purchased an `11 from Famille Bougrier for $17 Cdn to show support for the growers.

 

[Jeff Grossman]

Appalling.

originally posted by VLM:
I feel like we should do something for Francois. Kickstarter?

This is a good idea. After Hurricane Sandy, the various Red Hook restaurants had a lot of creative ideas for raising money to rebuild: funding campaigns, 1-for-2 junk bonds, loans.