GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / AMONG THE VINES – Everyone cried when two hail storms swept through many of western Switzerland’s vineyards in June 2013, and there were tears for some of the other bad weather patches last year, but a growing sense that vintage 2013 would be a good one has now been confirmed.

In fact, 2013, it turns out, is giving us great wines. Smaller quantities of grapes and relatively clement weather in the second half of the year provided the right conditions for “an excellent vintage”, confirmed by tastings several weeks after the wines were made.

The Swiss Federal Agriculture Office announced Thursday 16 January that the grape harvest was the smallest since 1980, which translated into 84 million litres of wine, down from the normal production level of 105 million litres.

Weather was not kind to growers

The weather last year didn’t make the work of wine grape growers easy, says the FAO. A long, cold, damp spring resulted in late flowering in the vineyards.

The warm, sunny summer allowed a certain amount of catching up but in most places the harvest took place two weeks later than usual, ending in mid-November for some.

The size of the individual grapes was smaller than usual in many areas.

It was a year that will be remembered for its contrasting conditions, says the FAO. Ticino had a record harvest while Neuchatel, the worst hit by the massive hailstorm 20 June, saw its production fall by 54 percent compared to 2012.