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The permitted yield for the grape harvest in Champagne was set at 11,400 kg per hectare. This is 600 kg less than in 2022, but the upper limit for the reserve was raised from 8,000 to 10,000 kg. The reserve was introduced as late as last year, it consists of wines from previous vintages and serves to compensate for crop failures. The increase is to enable Champagne producers to include the potentially promising 2023 harvest in the reserve in order to reach the jointly determined available yield in low-yield years. This is how the industry association Comité Champagne (CIVC) aims to maintain market balance.
According to the CIVC, yields per hectare in Champagne have fallen by 26 percent in the past 12 years. The reasons for this are climatic changes, vine diseases and the ageing of the vine population. It was therefore decided to make full use of good and high-yield vintages with the reserve in order to strengthen the resilience of the Champagne economy.
At the moment, the health of the vines was generally very good. Frost damage affected only 1.5 per cent of the vineyards and hail damage only 0.3 per cent. Infestation with powdery and downy mildew is also within limits. Only the insufficient water supply of the soils was a cause for concern. The Comité Champagne expects the harvest to begin in the first ten days of September and forecasts annual sales of 314 million bottles after 326 million bottles in the previous year. The figure is based on estimates from the first half of 2023, when volumes fell by 4.7 per cent. The Comité pointed out that 2022 had been "an exceptionally successful year" after the small harvest in 2021 and with catch-up effects after the pandemic.
(al / Source: Comité Champagne)