Some Hunter Valley vignerons say they lost nearly all their grape crop in the hail storm that lashed parts of the region at the weekend.

A large hail storm moved through the northern part of Broke Fordwich on Friday night, bringing with it more than 34 millimetres of rain.

In 2011, two major hail storms ravaged the region later in the growing season, meaning the damage was far greater.

Andrew Margan of Margan Family Wines says it could have been much worse, and is hopeful the tropical humidity is over.

"Some vineyards lost nearly all their crop," he said.

"I have a large holding there and I lost anywhere between five and 20 per cent of the fruit that was hanging there.

"Right now the berries are still very hard, still very green.

"We've got very good canopies this year and that's probably protected us significantly, compared to what the damage could have been."

Mr Margan says this year's harvest still has the potential to be one of the best, despite the hail damage.

"With any luck, sooner or later this weather will dry out, and we'll leave this incredible tropical humidity.

"The damaged fruit tends to just shrivel up and falls off.

"You're left with a little bit less fruit, but that fruit can be even better quality, it ripens a lot quicker because there's less fruit to ripen.

"At the end of the day, losing fruit is losing money, but if that ends up meaning we have a much better quality harvest then I can live with it."

Source - http://www.abc.net.au/