French winemakers call for bailout after extreme weather leaves vineyards bare
Recent hailstorms that have pounded down on thousands of hectares of vineyards in the Bordeaux region are leading some French vintners to call for a bailout. Local winemakers many of whom are small, uninsured producers surveyed their devasted crops and counted their losses Tuesday.
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"It was a brutal and intense storm," said Bernard Farges, head of the Bordeux Wine Professionals Committee to AFP. "The vines stood no chance."
Now, they’ re calling on the government to step in.
On Monday, Farges’ group called for tax and social security breaks and compensation for this year’s dismal production beset by chaotic weather.
The storms hit an estimated 20,000 hectares in the Entre-deux-Mers region, which straddles the Garonne and Dordogne rivers.
Farges already saw major losses this year with an anticipated 4.5 million hectolitres comapred to 5.4 in 2012.
In late July, another storm devasted grape harvests in France’s famed Burgundy region where some estates saw up to 90 per cent of crops ruined.
More storms are expected in the region but it’s not just the summer’s end on these winemakers’ mind.
Scientists warn that higher temperatures and extreme weather could send winemaking elsewhere.
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