(Indepedent) - Hailstones the size of golf balls pelted the Chablis region, about 200km south of Paris, last month. It was the final nail in the coffin of this year's crop following unseasonable frosts and rain in April.

More than 1,000 acres of prized Chardonnay vineyards, especially in the southwest of the region, were all but destroyed by poor weather which also hit the Cognac and Beaujolais-producing region of Burgundy, prompting the French farming federation to declare a state of "catastrophe".

Robert Smith, owner of Dublin wine importers Mackenway Distributors which supplies many independent wine shops, said the hailstones put paid to any hope of recovery in the Burgundy region which has suffered from poor yields over the past few years.