Trade News – Champagne Guru

Difficult 2021 harvest in Champagne begins

Looking from The vineyard in Chouilly towards Epernay earlier this afternoon the weather looked threatening. And it has rained sporadically this afternoon which is the last thing producers need as picking is soon to start in this cru.

As I’m travelling out to Champagne, just a few days since picking began in some parts of the appellation, I’m reviewing what different people have been saying so far about prospects for the 2021 harvest. Tomorrow, I will see for myself with visits to a press house in Verzenay in the Montagne de Reims and a producer in Chouilly, in the Côte des Blancs, planned for my first day back in Champagne since March 2019.

What do we know about the 2021 harvest already? It’s been hit by a triple whammy of severe frost, torrential rain and disease, with mildew and powdery mildew causing widespread problems and fears that those delaying in an effort to obtain a high level of ripeness may be hit by botrytis. Areas reported to have suffered the most damage include much of the Marne Valley, Bar-sur-Aube and part of the Montagne de Reims.

It’s all gone wrong since vegetative growth began in late March, the result of a damp warm early spring, and as the first leaves started to appear there followed 12 days of frost between 6 April and 3 May, with the lowest temperatures and most damage recorded 6-7 April and 3 May. In total some 30% of the harvest potential was lost with Barséquanais (63%), Bar-sur-Aubois (51%) and the Massif de Saint Thierry (45%) the regions most affected.

Philippe Brun of Roger Brun in Ay with some Pinot Noir destined for Charles Heidsieck

In terms of yields, the original verdict of the Champagne Comité on 21 July was 10,000kgs/ha, the equivalent of around 300m bottles. This was adjusted in line with a powerful continuation of the recovery in demand in the first half of 2012 (up 47.9%, which equates to 36,915,180 more bottles than the 113,965,546 bottles shipped in the admittedly terrible first half of 2020), to give producers the chance to pick an extra 3,100kgs/ha to put into their reserve, providing that reserve does not exceed 8,000kgs/ha. In fact because the average already held in reserve by producers across the appellation is already 7,440kgs/ha, on average the most that can be put away is 560kgs/ha.

Except in some areas on the Côte des Blancs not too adversely affected by all the difficult weather conditions that have hit over the growing season, managing to pick over 10,000kgs/ha seemed rather unlikely, according to recent reports from the Comité and some journalistic sources. Arriving in Champagne, it doesn’t appear to be the case in some parts of the Montagne de Reims with one independent producer in Aÿ, Philippe Brun talking about reaching 12,000kgs/ha, but we will find out more today on the ground.

How Champagne needs to adapt to meet challenges of climate change

My article on how Champagne is starting to adapt to meet the challenges of climate change is published this week in the Champagne Report, sent out with the November issue of The Drinks Business. It’s a long, 10-page feature, but then it’s a huge subject. The work going on looking at developing potentially suitable new grape varieties to combat hotter and sunnier summers in Champagne, is feature worthy alone. And I attempt to cover a lot more ground. This feature was actually written back in March, but publication was unfortunately delayed by Covid-19.

As this piece is looking much further ahead, hopefully that delay doesn’t make it any less newsworthy. In fact, since it was written, we have seen the earliest ever start to a harvest in Champagne, so this is likely to remain the biggest issue Champagne has to address over the next couple of decades.

Here’s a link to a pdf of the feature so you can read it all

Perrier-Jouët chef de cave Hervé Deschamps retires

*Hervé Deschamps glass in hand at Maison Belle Époque*

On Friday 30 October I received a note from Hervé Deschamps, the ever-smiling chef de cave at Perrier-Jouët, saying it was last day at this famous house. Only the seventh cellarmaster since 1811, he’s worked at Perrier-Jouët for 37 years, the last 27 as the chef de cave. He joined in a great year for Champagne, 1983 and he leaves immediately after another, this time the third of a trio of fine vintages.

He’s been the creative spirit behind the wines, the consistent presence at this historic house under four different ownerships, three of them giants of the wine and spirits business in their time, Seagram, Allied Domecq and currently Pernod Ricard. While they have guided the marketing strategy, with variable success, he has sensibly been left to get on with making the wine. Over the past three decades he’s also been the friendly, welcoming face of the house, particularly for visiting journalists.

If the press has a good feeling about Perrier-Jouët, and I think it’s fair to say they generally do, he has had had a lot to do with it. He’s seen chef de caves at sister house G.H. Mumm come and go. While he’s ruled the roost at 28 Avenue de Champagne, in Epernay, there have been five different occupants there at 34 Rue du Champ de Mars in Reims.

The role of cellar master has changed radically over the past three decades. When Hervé started the job in the early nineties, he was not just making the wine, he purchased the grapes and all the dry goods needed in champagne production and he was also responsible for organising the considerably larger workforce then employed in the cellars.

As he comments, in Susie Barrie’s podcast https://bit.ly/3l1RRc3 celebrating his time at Perrier-Jouët, his predecessor only made one official trip outside Champagne during his reign as cellar master. Hervé, on the other hand, reckons over the past two decade or so, he’s spent 50-60 days a year travelling, principally to the brand’s main markets of Japan, the USA and the UK.

Herve Deschamps with some Chardonnay just picked in the Grand Cru of Cramant

I first met Hervé soon after he became chef de cave in the early nineties and I have continued to meet and taste with him regularly in Epernay and London, over the past two and a half decades. He’s never been anything other than charming company, always smiling and at his happiest sharing a bottle of his own wine.

Just a few years ago I asked Hervé for a brief summary of the Perrier-Jouët style. The thoughts he proffered were: “white flower, stylish and sea-salt”. I’d just been tasting the newly launched Belle Époque Brut Vintage 2008 with him and while that wasn’t exactly my tasting note, all those things are evident in the very fine, dazzling fresh 2008 release. It’s perfumed, with a noticeable grip and mid palate chalky intensity. And no-one would say it lacked style.

It plays between the elegance and freshness of Chardonnay from Cramant, Avize, Chouilly, Mesnil and Vertus, set against the power and structure of Mailly, Verzy and Verzenay Pinot Noir. “But don’t forget the 5% Dizy Pinot Meunier,” says Hérve. “It acts as a link between the two, like the hyphen between Perrier and Jouët.” A lovely descriptor, I’ve always thought.

A beaming Hervé, sits behind a collection of the Perrier-Jouët Belle Époque magnums that he has made and we’ve just had the pleasure of tasting

I’ve been lucky enough to experience several vertical tastings of Belle Époque with Hervé over the years. Notably in September 2006, we worked our way back from 1999 white and rosé, through 1998, 1997. 1996, 1995, 1989, 1988, 1985 the first vintage he himself made and then on to ’82 and ’79.

But what I shall remember best is having a relaxed lunch with him on a summer’s day, on the terrace overlooking the glorious garden at Maison Belle Époque, sharing a glass of Perrier-Jouët Belle Époque Blanc de Blancs, his very own creation first made in 1993, specifically to celebrate the Millennium. His winning smile and infectious giggle will be sadly missed on future trips to Champagne.

Last month Hervé handed over the keys of the cellar to his successor Séverine Frerson

Champagne sales may go back 30 years

Champagne sales in 2020 “may go back to where they were 30 years ago,” says Pol Roger CEO Laurent d’Harcourt. He made his comments on the current state of the champagne market during last weeks’ zoom tasting for the launch of Pol Roger 2013. A launch which, according to Pol’s UK MD James Simpson MW, represents “a return to proper, old fashioned vintage Pol with a proper backbone”. (To be reviewed on the What I’ve Been Tasting page shortly).

“The crisis we find today is worse for those brands involved in nightclubs, in bars, on airlines or duty-free and we are not exposed much in these sectors,” says d’Harcourt. “Generally, we are likely to see a decline of between 20-25%, perhaps 30% for some, but at Pol we expect to be around 10% down on a very good 2019. We aren’t too involved in restaurants and by-the-glass sales either, where you have to be very aggressive on price.”

While champagne sales generally may go back to 1990 levels – when shipments were at 232.4m bottles as the market headed into a slump for five years following the oil crisis, before restarting a long and steady period of growth in the mid-1990s – “at Pol Roger we’re only going back a few years, to the level in 2018,” d’Harcourt added. “We are befitting from the decision not to grow too much or too rapidly over the past few years and we are very happy about that today.”

The July and August figures for worldwide Champagne shipments continue to show a very slight improvement on the poor results in April and May 2020, as the sales decline softened in some markets with the summer easing of restrictions. While the monthly figure for July was down 11.8% on July 2019 in France, in August domestic shipments rose 15.3%. In the first 8 months of 2020 shipments to France are down 21% and while the decline is slowing – it was -25.8% January-July and -29.2% in the first six months – this already represents a loss of some 14.5m bottles. And champagne sales are heavily weighted towards the final quarter of the year.

France still accounts for around 49% of shipments by volume, if rather less by value, although its share of the overall market has been declining steadily since 2010. The Champenois will be more concerned about the drop in exports, with those shipped within the wider European market down 27.8% in the first eight months of 2020, a loss of 10.5m bottles and shipments to further flung destinations, the USA, Japan and Australia being the three most significant, dropping 28.3% January to August, a further loss of just over 14m bottles.

At the moment the MAT figure in the 12 months to the end of August records a drop of 40.54m bottles but in fact the market is down 39.02m bottles in the first eight months of 2020, and the last four months of the year typically accounts for around half the annual shipments. So, if the market doesn’t decline beyond 1990 levels, there will be some relief in Champagne.

Early conversations with the major brands in the UK (a detailed report on this will follow soon on the site), suggests those who have kept faith in the UK consumers’ predilection for this singular French fizz will be vindicated, and Pol is of course among them. It remains their number one export market.

“We are very happy to have a strong presence and a strong team in the UK, most of our markets are quite solid,” says d’Harcourt. “The wines are on allocation, including in the UK. This year because of the decrease in sales in France, we can be more positive in response to requests [for more stock] from some of these smaller, solid markets.”

First impressions of the 2020 harvest in Champagne

The CIVC has released its own, short report about the 2020 harvest just completed in Champagne. It describes it as a “splendid harvest” beginning on 17 August in the most forward vineyards, the earliest official start ever (though in fact some producers started picking even earlier in the Côte des Bar on 13 August, as we have already reported here).

Thibault le Mailloux, director of communication at the CIVC, in what may be his last task in that role (he is moving to Champagne Gosset as director of communication and marketing), also notes that 2020: Continue reading “First impressions of the 2020 harvest in Champagne”

June shipments figures show slight improvement

Stock levels in Champagne’s cellars are currently high

The June figures for Champagne shipments show a slight improvement on the poor results in April and May 2020, as sales picked up in some markets. But the monthly shipment figure of 15.8m bottles, was still Continue reading “June shipments figures show slight improvement”

Earliest ever start to Champagne harvest

The Champagne harvest began yesterday (13 August) in the Côte des Bars village of Buxeuil, which is one of the southernmost villages in the whole Champagne appellation, close to Les Riceys, Champagne’s largest single cru. This is the sixth harvest since the Millennium that has started in August and beats the record for the earliest ever start – in 2018 the secateurs were out in the Grand Cru of Ambonnay on 17 August — by four whole days. The producer involved is Noël Leblond-Lenoir, a grower with 13 hectares of vineyard mainly planted with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir though they also have some Pinot Blanc.
Continue reading “Earliest ever start to Champagne harvest”

Champagne fails to agree 2020 yield amid “worst crisis since WW2”

By Giles Fallowfield, Published by Harpers online: 24 July, 2020
https://bit.ly/340BmIb

The two presidents of the CIVC, Jean-Marie Barillère, president of the UMC and (left) Maxime Toubart, president of the SGV

The Champenois are in disarray as efforts to reach agreement on the level of yield for the 2020 harvest failed at a recent meeting of the Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne (CIVC) in Epernay.

The two sides of the business, the négociant merchants on the one hand, Continue reading “Champagne fails to agree 2020 yield amid “worst crisis since WW2””

Champagne in turmoil

Giles Fallowfield explains the background to the extraordinarily difficult decision these two warring officials in Champagne are expected to announce later today.
My copy as it appeared on JancisRobinson.com on the morning of 22 July 2020 (https://www.jancisrobinson.com/articles/champagne-turmoil ) Guest contributor 22 Jul 2020

The two presidents of the CIVC, Jean-Marie Barillère, president of the UMC and (right) Maxime Toubart, president of the SGV

Champagne shipments slumped in April and May as the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic has hit worldwide sales. Champagne’s governing body the CIVC (the Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne or Continue reading “Champagne in turmoil”

Chef de cave merry-go-round* (Part One)

Dominique Demarville off to Laurent-Perrier next year

The chef de cave merry-go-round in Champagne continues apace. It must be a bit of blow for Moët-Hennessy to lose their highest profile head winemaker, Dominique Demarville so soon after the retirement of the experienced Richard Geoffroy at Dom Pérignon (at the end of 2018). Veuve Clicquot winemakers don’t usually depart the job until they retire, they are not meant to leave in their prime and at 53 Demarville is one of the most experienced winemakers in the appellation, arguably at the peak of his powers.

He’s done a great job in the 13 years he’s been at Clicquot, but as is the nature of the job, only his first solo Vintage Réserve wine from 2008 has Continue reading “Chef de cave merry-go-round* (Part One)”