HAIL DAMAGE

A massive hail storm tore through the Melbourne region in late December. Such events can be catastrophic in vineyards as the hail shreds the leaves and lacerates the berries.
The Squitchy Lane vineyard was luckily not in the epicentre of this storm but there was certainly enough hail to cover the ground and cause some damage to the vines. You can see above what happens to a grape berry when it is hit by a hail stone. These berries will shrivel and drop off the bunch as long as the weather is dry following the damage. There was only a small amount of leaf and berry damage and we assume this was because the hail came straight down and was not driven by strong winds.
We have probably lost 5% of our crop. Other than that, the vines survived very well.