The 2013 harvest kicked off in France a few days ago, with the Roussillon region beginning to pick this season’s grapes. Roussillon is normally first out of the gate, although the start date this year is 10-15 days later than normal, due to a cool spring.

France is facing one of its smallest wine grape harvests in four decades, forecasts showed on Wednesday, due to a cold and rainy spring and severe hail storms.

Bordeaux is facing its smallest harvest since 1991, according to the Bordeaux Wine Bureau. A difficult spring, a wet early summer and a series of devastating hail storms have reduced the Bordeaux 2013 crop by around 20% versus 2012, which came in at 5.25m hectolitres.