Rain and hail plague vintage 2011

Image

Last week saw some pretty awful weather throughout many of northern Europe's major wine regions. Virtually the whole of France was treated to torrential rain last Friday, which must have somewhat interrupted the grape harvest well underway from Champagne to Bordeaux. Burgundy resident Gareth Skidmore sends this report of the current state of the 2011 vintage there – and see Michael Schmidt's dramatic account from Germany below.

I write on a wet and miserable Friday afternoon in Beaune with the rain lashing down (I took the photograph below, of the vineyards of Savigny with the hill of Corton above...