We’ve had our first experience of every farmer’s nightmare, hail. On Sunday 21 July, seemingly out of nowhere, a vicious hail storm hit us with horizontal, hail laden, winds gusting up to 100 km per hour. As we watched from the safety of the house we could tell the damage to the vines would be severe and it was. All of our vines suffered some level of damage but one parcel, a hectare of syrah with a beautiful open aspect, took the worst battering. In 2012 it produced 50 hectolitres worth of beautiful ripe fruit. A month on from the storm it looks like we’ve lost nearly all the crop from the parcel this year. The leaves and berries were literally torn to pieces by the hail in the space of 15 minutes.
We’re definitely hurting from the experience but some of our close neighbours suffered much more extensive damage than us so we know that it could have been worse.
Oh man. just seen your note about big hail. Last thing you wanted in the middle of Summer is to see that. Hope it all works out though with the rest of the harvest and crop. Thinking of you both.
Hi Alan
many thanks for your comments posted, we have just been around all our vines and we will be making some good wine this year (just a bit less of it)
All the best
Jack