(Chablis) “There will not be much Chablis this year”: the violent hailstorms that fell Wednesday evening on Chablis (Yonne), an internationally renowned vineyard, caused “very significant” damage, winegrowers testified on Thursday to the AFP.
“It’s all chopped up. There’s nothing left”: Jean-Paul Durup, owner of the estate of the same name in Maligny, near Chablis, has “never seen a storm like this”.
“This plot is totally toasted,” he told AFP, showing the first shoots completely torn apart by the hail, even though they had just emerged from the porcini mushrooms.
On Wednesday evening, the Chablis region was crossed by two “hail-producing supercells”, according to Météo-France, causing hailstones, sometimes as large as walnuts, to fall in places.
“There has been some hail before, but never like this,” judges Mr. Durup, walking on layers of hailstones lining the ground between the rows of vines.
“The damage is quite significant in certain villages,” said the vice-president of the Chablis Producers Association, Frédéric Gueguen.
“The shoots on the vines are still young and therefore fragile,” underlines this winegrower from Domaine Céline et Frédéric Gueguen, who did not yet have a precise idea of the possible impacts on his vines.
“There won’t be a lot of Chablis this year,” says Arnaud Nahan, co-owner of Domaine du Chardonnay, in Chablis.
“The hail chopped everything up. It devastated a good part of the entire vineyard,” he told AFP, noting that “in some places, we have 100% losses.”
“It’s a disaster this year,” he underlines, recalling that he “will have had everything this year”, after an episode of frost last week and the significant Easter floods which completely covered the estate at the edge. of the Serene River.
The Chablis vineyard covers nearly 6,000 hectares. More than 67% of sales are made for export.