The harvest in the Champagne vineyards may begin on Monday in certain municipalities of the Aube, an early date linked to a hot and dry summer, but later than in 2020, announced this Saturday the Champagne Committee, which is pleased with a ” “ideal development”.
Pickers will be able to get to work from Monday, August 22, in certain municipalities of the Aube and will be followed over the following days by Marne, Haute-Marne, Aisne and Seine-et-Marne, where three villages are part of the appellation. The start dates of the authorized harvest are staggered according to the localities until September 5, that is, a fortnight before last year.
In the Aube, some farms had obtained exemptions to give the first scissor blows as of Thursday 18. “These are the eighth harvests that start in August since 2003, it is not becoming the rule, but frequent”, commented David Chatillon, co-president . of the Champagne Committee. “We are in the ideal curve, with moderate water stress, and we must not forget that the vine is a Mediterranean plant, water stress is good for it,” he adds.
“We have quantity and quality”
“We cannot dream of anything better, in quantity and quality,” he said, noting that for the next few days, the weather forecast announces “a little rain, cool nights.” The year 2021 had been a difficult one for the Champagne vineyards, which had not experienced such a poor harvest linked to weather hazards (frost and hail in spring, then rainy summers and bouts of mold) since the 1950s.
The previous year, in 2020, the harvest had been exceptionally early, starting in some communes as early as August 20. At the end of July, the executive office of the Champagne Committee, which brings together winegrowers and large houses, decided to set the 2022 harvest yield at 12,000 kilos per hectare, its highest level in fifteen years.
“After the sequence of 2020 where we had a large crop but low needs given the economic situation (linked to the health crisis, editor’s note) and 2021 where we had a small crop and significant needs, this year we are blessed, we have the amount and quality”, summed up David Chatillon.
Source: BFM TV
