text: Hail to the bubbly! No, literally -- hail has been falling all over grapes made to make champagne and it’s cutting into the French output of the effervescent beverage. 
   
   The champagne harvest is down 40 percent this year, leading to the worst yield in at least four decades, thanks to hail storms and fungus caused by wet weather, according to the French Agriculture Ministry, Businessweek reports. All over Europe, in fact, crops of grapes used to make wine have had a bad season this year, causing the total French grape harvest to decline by 20 percent, including in the well-known wine-producing regions of Burgundy and Bordeaux. Yields are also down in Italy and England. 
   
   But despite the poor crops, champagne drinkers shouldn’t worry that the low output will cut into their 2013 New Year’s celebrations too much. Champagne takes at least 15 months to make and is often made from a mixture of grapes from harvests spanning several years so the long term effect isn’t expected to be too drastic. In fact, producers have an at least three-year supply of champagne in reserve, Businessweek reports. 
   
   Indeed, even with the shortages expected from this year, wine producers seem equipped to handle the decline since there’s a surplus left over from waning demand in the U.S. and South America markets due to the recession, The Edmonton Journal reports. 
   
   But demand for champagne appears to finally to be bouncing back after a three year lull, according to Harpers Wines. Last year, the U.S. champagne market grew 14.4 percent, Businessweek reports. ||||| France 
   
   With its economy sliding into recession, France could use a bit of cheering up as the holiday season approaches. Instead, it got this news: The champagne harvest is down 40 percent this year, as vineyards were ravaged by hailstorms, wet weather, and fungus. “This is the lowest harvest in at least 40 years,” the Agriculture Ministry said in reporting the figures on Nov. 9. 
   
   Happily for champagne aficionados, there’ll be no shortage for New Year’s Eve. The bubbly stuff has to age a minimum 15 months in producers’ cellars before being sold—so the bottle you open on Dec. 31 won’t come from this year’s crop. What’s more, there’s more than a three-year supply of champagne in producers’ vats, waiting to be bottled. Typically, champagne is made from a mixture of grapes from several years’ harvests. “We built up reserves during the years when we had big harvests, which helps us deal with the caprices of nature,” says Thibaut le Mailloux, a spokesman for the French champagne producers association, known as the CIVC. 
   
   Unhappily for French producers, they have another problem. Their countrymen are drinking less champagne—and France accounts for about half of global sales. French champagne sales fell 2 percent in 2011, including an 8 percent year-on-year drop during the Christmas and New Year holiday season. At the time, the CIVC said the decline was a “temporary effect” from the European debt crisis. But the crisis has continued, and the French economy has worsened this year, with three quarters of flat growth and unemployment now at a 13-year high of more than 10 percent. “France is not really in a festive mood,” says Laetitia Delay, a beverage analyst at Kepler Capital Markets in Paris. 
   
   Major producers such as LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMUY)—whose champagne brands include Moët & Chandon, Krug, and Veuve—have cushioned themselves against the downturn by exporting. Even as French sales dropped, the U.S. champagne market grew 14.4 percent in 2011 while China was up 19 percent. But smaller producers are suffering, Delay says. Adding to the woe, some distributors are lowering prices to clear their inventories. Says Delay: “That’s very bad for the image of champagne.”
target: – Wet weather and hailstorms combined to make this year's Champagne harvest—the real capital C stuff from France—the worst in 40 years, reports BloombergBusinessweek. Damaged vineyards in the Champagne region yielded 40% fewer grapes this year, says an industry spokesman in Paris. The only good news is that this New Year's Eve won't be affected because bottles typically age 15 months. Generally speaking, it's been a lousy year for grapes all across Europe, notes the Huffington Post.