Champagne ‘overreacted’ to challenges of 2017 harvest

Growers may have “overreacted” to the challenges of this year’s vintage in Champagne because they are used to “easy harvests”, according to Moët & Chandon cellar master Benoît Gouez.

Benoît Gouez believes that the Champenois tend to overreact to the incidence of rot in the vineyards because they are so used to harvests that are ripe and clean

As previously reported by the drinks business, although the 2017 vintage in Champagne started well, with hot and dry weather from May until late July (advancing budburst and blossoming), the month of August turned out to be warm and wet – conditions that favoured the incidence and rapid spread of botrytis in the bunches.

And it was the threat of rotten grapes that made it necessary to pick extremely quickly, as well as sort very carefully, with, for example, Bollinger cellar master Gilles Descôtes describing 2017 as “the most challenging vintage of my career”.

However, speaking to db on 26 October in London, Moët’s Gouez said that he thought the Champenois had forgotten how to handle a difficult vintage, following a long run of relatively straightforward harvests in Champagne, and, as a result, had been unnerved by conditions that were once common in the region.

“I think we have overreacted [to the conditions in 2017] because we have become so used to easy harvests that, maybe, we have lost the habit of how to deal with challenging harvests, the habit of being selective ­– which was the case in the 50s and 60s,” he said.

Nevertheless, when discussing Moët’s approach to the harvest across its 1,400 hectares in Champagne – which represents around one quarter of the brand’s grape supply – he said that it was necessary to be both quick and selective.

“This year we did not manage the harvest in a classic way, for example, we decided to go as fast as possible in the most promising plots; the idea was to harvest faster than the rot was spreading,” he recorded.

Continuing he said, “So our strategy was to prioritise the plots that were ripe and clean, and sacrifice the plots that were too degraded – instead of harvesting everything.”

Like Bollinger’s Descôtes, Gouez said that this year’s harvest was “the shortest on record”, adding that Moët had had to hire more harvesters than ever before so the house was able to pick faster than the rot was spreading – “And it paid off – the quality we have got from our own estate was higher than that from our partners,” he stated.

Talking more generally about conditions in Champagne, Gouez, reiterating the point made above, said that the incidence of rot in the region was now the exception, rather than the rule.

“When we get rot, now we tend to overreact because we are so used to harvests that are ripe and clean, today having rot is the exception, but 50 years ago, it was common, and not having rot was the exception.”

“I’m not saying that rot is not an issue, but I don’t think the conditions we faced this year were different from those in the past,” he then said, before running through recent vintages and their state of cleanliness to highlight the rarity of rot in the past 15 years.

“2016 was clean,
2015 was clean,
2014 we had rot in the Marne Valley,
2013 was clean,
2012 was clean,
2011 was like 2014,
2010 was like 2014,
2009 was clean,
2008 was clean,
2007 was more rustic,
2006 was clean,
2005 we had some rot,
2004 was clean,
2003 was clean,
2002 was clean and
2001 we had rot,” he recorded.

Importantly, he also stressed that Champagne is now better placed to handle the complications caused by the spread of rot in vineyards.

“Today we are more equipped to deal with it, and we have one harvest in reserve, which means that we can sacrifice part of our crop: for example, this year we left 20% of the crop on the ground because we knew we had the reserve to compensate.”

Like Descôtes, Gouez also stressed that the incidence of rot was not uniform across Champagne’s 33,000 hectares of vineyards, noting that Pinot Noir from Champagne’s Aube sub-region was good this year because this more southerly area of the appellation didn’t suffer the same August rains that afflicted the Marne Valley.

Meanwhile, Gosset cellar master, Odilon de Varine, told db earlier last month that in 2017, “The Chardonnay was good everywhere in Champagne”, before commenting, “And there are some places with wonderful Pinot Noir.”

However, he then said that “2017 was very complicated for Meunier, which was too ripe.”

He added, “It is shame, because the reputation of the vintage will be set by the Meunier, even if we have other wonderful things.”

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