The senator for Burgundy’s Côte d’Or region is calling on the French government to come to the aid of local wine growers affected by Tuesday’s devastating storms. François Patriat announced on Thursday that he would inform the French prime minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, of the situation in the Côte de Beaune, following serious hail damage to local vineyards. “I am going to speak to the prime minister, the minister for agriculture and the finance minister about the extremely precarious situation of a number of vineyard owners in the Côte de Beaune – in particular to help young viticulturists and those who have just purchased land in the area,” Patriat said in a statement. The villages of Volnay, Pommard, Savigny-lès-Beaune and Pernand-Vergelesses were worst affected and the politician met local mayors and vineyard owners to discuss the damage. The region has estimated that the hail and rainstorm which battered the vineyards of the Côte de Beaune on Tuesday afternoon wiped out 1,350 hectares of vines, or 5 percent of Burgundy's total vineyard area. The affected vineyards have had between 10 and 100 percent of their vines destroyed, “representing a potential loss of close to 30,000 hectoliters [3m liters or 4m bottles] for the 2013 harvest.” To read more, click here