French wine production to fall 10% this year after fierce spring weather
Fierce storms that hit France in April will help to push wine production down by more than 10% this year, the ministry of agriculture has said, The Guardian writes.
According to the source, unseasonably cool weather through the spring and into the summer will drag overall production down to 42.9m hectolitres from 47.8m a year ago, the ministry’s statistical service, Agreste, said on Thursday.
Champagne was one of the worst-hit regions after several bouts of spring frost and hailstorms which are forecast to drag output down by as much as a third, leading to harvesting being already a week behind schedule based on a 10-year average. An even larger fall is likely to beset the Loire valley.
France is expected to fill fewer bottles than Italy again.