Hail damage is ghastly. It’s random, localised and destructive and can wipe out a crop in minutes. That’s what happened here in the Vouvray appellation last week.
The final straw after an already challenging start to the season when growers spent thousands of euros protecting their tender buds from the spring frosts in April.
There’s not much you can do about hail as it’s often completely unexpected and random.
As the rain thundered down all over the Loire that night, 43mm of rain fell in 24 hours. The sky was alight with streaks of lightening and the claps of thunder seemed to get closer and closer.
We had no hail here in Noizay but just down the road, in the Vouvray villages of Chancay and Rochecorbon, the heavens opened and a down came the hailstones.
In just 15 minutes it was all but over for a group of growers whose vines had been blasted. Canes snapped, leaves stripped and any potential fruit smashed to pieces. The ground underneath the vines a sea of white pea sized hailstones and green foliage, no longer attached to the vines.
Hail damage is particularly hard to stomach as it leaves its trace not just for one year but for two.
As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, dormant buds initiate in the year PRIOR to their growth as a shoot. In simple terms, the fruiting potential of the vine (and therefore the amount of grapes) is established the year before during what we call floral initiation. If canes are badly damaged then the chances of a good crop the following year are also limited.
Hard to bear after an already difficult 18 months. These vines will still have to be tended, treated and looked after carefully to ensure they remain in as good a condition as possible moving forward.
