Some of France's most prestigious vineyards are counting the costs of fierce hailstorms that have battered the Burgundy region for the third consecutive summer, reports The Guardian.
Hailstones as big as golf balls, buffeted by 60mph winds, swept across the Côte de Beaune region on Saturday afternoon, causing winegrowers to predict between 40% and 80% of the grape harvest would be lost.
"It's a disaster," said Jean-Louis Moissenet, the president of the Pommard winegrowers' association. "We were gearing up for a good year, but now it's gone by the board."
A spokeswoman from the Domaine Chauvenet in Pommard told the Guardian it would take a few days for insurers to determine the extent of the damage.
"But it's not just us, everybody in the region is affected," she said. The other vineyards hit by the storms include Volnay, Meursault and Beaune, home to a total of 2,000 winegrowers.
Read more of this report from The Guardian.