French grapes suffer wrath of frost, as poorer harvest expected
Paris — France’s wine production is expected to plummet 18% this year after spring frost damaged vines across the country, the government said on Friday — but a hot summer is expected to yield a top vintage. "The 2017 wine harvest is expected to be 37.2-million hectolitres, which is 18% less than 2016 and 17% below the average over the past five years," the agriculture ministry said, echoing warnings from wine makers. Jerome Despey, the head of a governmental wine advisory board, said last week that he expected a 40% drop in output in the prime wine-growing region of Bordeaux, the country’s largest. In 2016, the sector had already suffered one of the poorest harvests in 30 years. The new drop in production is "mainly attributable to the severe spring frost that affected all the wine-growing regions to varying degrees at a sensitive time for the vine," the agriculture ministry said. The bitter cold struck twice within a week in April, ravaging the fragile shoots and buds that had eme...
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