As paradoxical as it may seem, the extraordinary climatic conditions of the summer of 2017 will give rise to a record harvest, in terms of both quantity and quality, for French champagne. This was written by Les Echos, which cites the Comité Interprofessionnel du vin de Champagne, the organization of producers of the most famous sparkling wine in the world, also giving credit for the exploit to the election of Emmanuel Macron to the presidency of the Republic. The young head of state “it has brought a new wave of optimism to the wine market as well”, say the experts, who predict a rebound in turnover in the coming months, after the first half of 2017 has already marked a rise in orders, albeit only by 3% due to a stagnation of the domestic market that has been dragging on since the end of 2016.
2017, on the other hand, will be the year of redemption: the great heat also recorded in Northern France it has indeed destroyed 23% of the vineyards, but paradoxically it has ensured that the bunches spared from the drought are much larger than they would have been under normal conditions. The harvest will therefore be more profitable: 10.300 kilos per hectare, a result that last year was obtained by using more than one thousand kilos per hectare of reserve wines, which instead this season will increase by 500 kilos to meet an international demand already reported in sharp increase.
In fact, requests have grown by 18% from the non-EU market and by 9% from the European one: the countries that have booked the most champagne are the USA, Japan, Australia and China. Domestic requests, on the other hand, are low for now (-3,2% in the first half), even if the domestic market remains the main one: it is curious if one thinks of their worldwide fame, but over half of French bubbles are sold in France and only 23% outside Europe. But “thanks to” Macron, apparently, champagne is becoming more and more fashionable abroad as well.
Furthermore, thanks to the sustained heat of the last two months, the 2017 harvest will be one of the five earliest in history (it will begin at the end of August) and above all one of the most qualitative, given that the almost absence of rainfall has made it possible not to use treatments against powdery mildew and downy mildew, plant diseases that can occur in case of humidity.
