Wine Is Fragile

In the last few decades vineyard managers and winemakers have developed techniques and processes that can turn out decent vintages from even most bad years. The downside to this is that some wines (I'm looking at you Mondavi) have traded the uniqueness of each vintage and the vineyard's terroir for homogeneity and blandness (another, less annoying, side effect is Bordeaux's infamous "vintage of the century" come along a lot more frequently ;)).

But, even with all of the modern methods, there are some things that can still ruin a vintage:

A week after a series of violent hailstorms struck some of Bordeaux's key appellations, wine producers are assessing the damage to affected vineyards and are predicting decreased yields for the 2009 vintage.

The storms caused extensive damage in the Côtes de Bourg, Premières Côtes de Blaye, Côtes de Castillon and Entre-Deux-Mers appellations, and also hit a few major appellations, including St.-Emilion, Margaux and Graves.

On the Left Bank, vineyards in the southern part of the Margaux appellation were worst affected, including Châteaus Palmer, Brane-Cantenac and d'Issan. Châteaus further north in the appellation, including first-growth Margaux, were largely untouched, according to producers.