Champagne: the harvest has started, a harvest announced as a "record" in volume

The harvest in the Champagne vineyards began this weekend in the Aube, but the majority of the communes of the appellation will start harvesting the grapes from Thursday for a year which promises to be "record" in volume, announced Sunday the Champagne Committee. If the first blows of secateurs have already been given in Montgueux (Aube), the harvests will begin for the majority of the 319 communes of the appellation from September 7, indicated David Chatillon, president of the Union of champagne houses and co-chairman of the Champagne Committee.

The start dates for the authorized harvest are set for each commune and each grape variety (Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Meunier) and this year runs until September 16th. This harvest “looks set in terms of absolutely record volumes”, with a weight of the clusters “never reached” around “220 grams” against “175 grams” for the previous record in 2005, detailed David Chatillon. Qualitatively, "with the weather at the beginning of August, we saw a few foci of botrytis appear which we are monitoring closely", but "for the moment it is not exploding" and "the weather these days, which promises to be very beautiful, is ideal, it will make it possible to dry out these centers of rot".

Thus “we can bring in something very beautiful and as there are a lot of quantities, we will be able to select better bunches”, rejoiced David Chatillon. Winegrowers and champagne houses have decided to set the marketable yield of the 2023 harvest at 11,400 kilos per hectare. After an already excellent year in 2021, driven by the reopening of bars and restaurants after the Covid-19 pandemic, the prestigious drink had confirmed its rebound in 2022, with 325.5 million bottles sold (1.6%), the highest volume in 15 years, according to the annual report of the Interprofessional Champagne Wine Committee (CIVC).