Hail damage to French vineyards

I mentioned hail damage to Chablis vineyards in the post about wine and weather a couple of months ago, but hailstorms were not only in the news in Hong Kong a few months ago, decimating a wine growing concern in the New Territories, it is also making news by wreaking havoc in some well known (and not so well known regions) in the best known wine country of the world, France. A news item few days ago listed the hail damage to that country's famous wine regions. A hailstorm last Sunday devastated 15,000 ha of vineyards in Languedoc-Roussillon around Corbieres and Minervois. A week earlier some 3000ha of vineyards in Burgundy were devastated (especially around Pommard and Volnay), whilst northern Medoc also sustained damage in mid June. This led Andrew Jefford to comment on his column last Monday on hail and its relationship to global warming etc.