Yesterday evening our vineyards in and around the village of Barrantes were hit by a storm… unfortunately this included a pretty heavy hailstorm. The main road of the village was partially flooded, and at least 3 or 4 hectares of our vines were damaged by hail. Of course, it is too early to know exactly how much our crop might lost, and we do leave a secondary cane during pruning (as a type of insurance against frost or hail). The problem is that these shoots will, unfortunately, produce a smaller crop. At least some of our vineyards were not touched by the storm, so it is not a complete loss (fingers crossed).

Up until the moment of the storms, the month of April had been largely warm and dry, and following the winter rains our vines had been growing quite vigorously. It seems that May might be more changeable with a mixture of conditions forecast for the coming weeks. We will know more once flowering has passed.