Vineyards owners described the hail as being the size of 'pigeon's eggs'
Comes weeks after much of Burgundy's wine crop was destroyed by storms
Many wine-makers are now facing ruin as they have no grapes to make wine
uined: Vineyards which were left seriously damaged after a summer hailstorm in Burgundy
The torrential hail storm which struck on August 2 ravaged around 20,000 hectares of land in the region - leaving many vineyards completely barren.
Many wine-makers in the region have been left with no crops by freak hail the size of 'pigeon's eggs' while others have seen theirs severely reduced.
Now two of France's best-known wine-producing regions, Bordeaux and Burgundy, will have limited output in the next two years causing many to lose their livelihoods and a hike in price for bottles of wine that are produced.
Bordeaux winemaker oïc de Roquefeuil, who owns 30 hectares at the Château de Castelneau near the village of Saint Léon, between the Dordogne and Garonne rivers south-east of Bordeaux, told the Guardian: 'It's a catastrophe. Everything has gone: the leaves, the grapes, everything. It happened so quickly. A year's work gone in nine minutes of hail.
'The storm was so violent the hailstones wounded the wood. The outer skin is shredded. There won't be a single bottle from these vines this year.
'We have been hit by hail six times in the last 25 years, but never like this. We had just finished trimming the vines and getting rid of the weeds - without herbicides - ready for the harvest in September. They were perfect. We had high hopes of this harvest.'
It comes after the majority of vineyards were wrecked by rain storms in Burgundy, where some of the country's best wines are produced, at the end of July.
The damage caused by the 'catastrophic' weather is threatening both the 2013 and 2014 vintages of the exclusive wine.
Growers are still assessing the impact of the storms on the vines, but the Burgundy Wine Board (BIVB) said the Pommard and Volnay areas - prized for their well-known and crus - were the worst hit.
'It is awful to see these vines ripped by hail and several years of wine growers' work destroyed by the weather in one afternoon,' Xavier de Volontat, head of France's independent wine makers said.
'Damage will be severe, which means that the 2013 vintage due to come out in 2015-2016 will become much rarer,' he said.
Many wine-makers were still trying to recover from damage caused by hail last year and from floods this spring.
Some are using extreme methods to try and protect their crops from future weather-related catastrophe.
One technique being used is cannons which fire silver iodide into the atmosphere which dissolves hailstones so they turn into rain. But a lot of iodide is needed for it to be effective and advanced warning ahead of a storm so it can be released in time.
Another option is placing netting high above the vines to catch the hailstones before they can damage the plants but many wine-makers found the hailstones just eventually broke the nets and landed on the vines anyway.
Many argue that insurance is the only viable option - but with some areas seeing six devastating hailstorms in the last 12 years, it is becoming increasingly costly.
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