For many of Europe’s winemakers, the harvest of 2014 was called a “challenge” or “disappointing” after a cold winter cracked and crippled vines, hail storms ravaged vineyards and rain in August delayed ripening.

Yields, or the amount of grapes harvested, dropped 20 per cent to 30 per cent in many areas and for some winemakers, there was no crop at all.

“It has been a difficult harvest,” said Jesus Madrazo, the winemaker for the Contino winery in Spain’s Rioja Alavesa region.

Although he was very optimistic in June and July, the grapes were slow to ripen and by mid-September rains came and set the perfect conditions for rot.

“The quality will be good,” he said during a visit to New York. “There will be wine made, but not as much as we would have hoped.”

In France, the worst floods in 60 years engulfed many vineyards in Languedoc, the country’s largest wine-producing region.

Evelyne de Pontbriand, the fourth generation owner and winemaker at Domaine du Closel in the Loire Valley, said autumn rains washed away any optimism about the harvest.

“A lot of the bunches (of grapes) were smelling of vinegar, so we had to throw them on the ground,” she said. “We lost quite a lot.”

It was a similar story in Portugal where rain also played havoc with the harvest. But Christian Seely, managing director of AXA Millésimes who is in charge of the French insurer’s vineyards, including the Douro port house Quinta Do Noval, said that overall he was happy with the harvest.

For José Maria de Fonseca, the maker of Lancers Rosé as well as brands like Periquita and Domingos, technology and forecasts helped him miss the rains.

There will be wine made, but not as much as we would have hoped

Domingos Soares Franco, the family’s sixth generation winemaker, has roughly 607 hectares of vines. Almost all of the harvest is done by machine. He saw the rainy forecast and even though all the grapes were not at their peak, he ordered the picking to begin.

“And I’m glad I did because you can work with the grapes in the winery, but you must have the grapes. Many of my neighbours waited and it rained. And now they don’t have the grapes,” he said.

In Tuscany, Giacomo Pondini, the director of the consortium Tutela del Vino Morellino di Scansano, reported a later-than-normal harvest and that heavy rains cut into the quantity of grapes harvested which required extraordinary work in the vineyard to avoid vine diseases.

But he added that October’s sunshine “enabled producers to bring their grapes in at the perfect moment for optimum maturity and health.”

Data released by the International Organisation of Vine and Wine showed the amount of wine made in 2014 is likely to be lower than in 2013. The data, released in late October, also noted a significant decline in wine production in Chile.

But in California, which produces roughly 90 per cent of all US wines, there was large crop of grapes for the third year in a row.