Chablis harvest 2018 best since 1998

This year’s Chablis harvest in northern Bourgogne is expected to provide some relief to the French winegrowing region after “two difficult years.”

(Photo: BIVB)

Louis Moreau, president of the Chablis Commission of the Bourgogne Board, said that the unusually warm summer which affected harvests across Europe mean that he extects this year’s vintage to be “the best in 20 years.

“Chablis is rejoicing!” he said. “We were uncertain after the drought this summer, but the vineyard gave us a real gift after two difficult years.

“Overall the vintage is qualitative and we have the quantity.”

Moreau said the weather and “perfect” sanitary condition of the vines allowed producers in the region to choose the best places to harvest which had “optimal grape maturity.”

“On arrival the juices are clear, without defects, without bitterness or herbaceous notes, they have body, fruit, and fermentations are going well.” A full report is expected by the end of the year.

The unusually high temperatures over the 2018 summer have had knock-on effects for harvests across Europe. Harvests in Champagne and the UK both began weeks earlier than their usual expected start.

The climate has also affected yields across Europe. Prosecco, for example, is on course to produce almost 600 million bottles of fizz from the 2018 harvest, making the region nearly two times the scale of Champagne.