Why 2024 is relevant to Moet’s 2016 vintage Champagne

A small crop due to springtime frost and mildew, but a balanced year of vintage quality – that’s the story of this year’s harvest in Champagne, as well as another recent growing season in the region. Patrick Schmitt MW reports on a new release.

It was during a visit by Moët & Chandon’s cellar master Benoît Gouez on Tuesday this week that the discussion began by analysing the latest harvest in Champagne – the weather conditions and the resulting wines, which are just being tasted for the first time.

Taking the trouble to detail the character of 2024, despite time constraints, Gouez justified such analysis on the basis that it is relevant to his latest launch: Moët’s Grand Vintage expression from 2016.

“With 2016, if you don’t remember the climate, you just have to think of 2024 – it is very similar,” he said.

By that he was referring to, in both cases, a low-yielding harvest due to frost, as well as some mildew brought about by cool wet conditions, and finally a result that was surprising in its quality, helped by some warm sunny weather in advance of picking.

In the case of this year’s harvest specifically, while “the summer was depressing”, what followed a damp August “saved the harvest”, according to Gouez. He explained, “During the first two weeks of September we had the perfect weather for ripening: it was sunny, cold at night, with no rain, and some winds.”

In particular, the wines from 2024, which are 20% down in volume compared to the average in the region, contain some “stars”, which are those from Pinot Noir grown in the premiers and grands crus of Champagne, according to Gouez, describing them as “full-bodied and fresh at the same time.”

As a result, with this year’s output “I’m going for a vintage”, he said, referring to the decision to bottle a Moët Grand Vintage expression, which is a Champagne from a single harvest, made only in superior years.

Comparable conditions in 2016 also led him to capture the character of the harvest with a Grand Vintage expression, which is being launched now, both as a blanc and rosé, priced in the UK at £62 and £77 respectively.

Like 2024, the harvest in 2016 was around 20% down (with around 8,000kg/ha of grapes harvested), and was afflicted by frost and then unusually wet weather, which encouraged the spread of mildew, although the fungal infection was controlled.

Also, both vintages saw Pinot Noir excel, at least relative to Chardonnay, which was slower to ripen, when it’s usually faster compared to the red grapes of Champagne.

Furthermore, 2016, like this year, required careful sorting and selection by winemakers to get the best results, which were, in both cases, “balanced”, with an ideal combination of ripe fruit and fresh acidity seen in the finest grapes from these harvests.

“With our Grand Vintage, we are looking for individuality – so what matters is that every vintage is unique,” began Gouez, when presenting the 2016 Champagnes. “It is a vintage by Moët & Chandon,” he added, stressing the fact that the harvest character should be prominent in the wines, but expressed within the brand’s ‘house style’.

Continuing, he recorded, “And our last three vintages – 2013, ’15 and ’16 – are quite different: ‘13 was a very late harvest with the first grapes picked at the end of September and most picked in first week of October.”

Such “unusual” picking times compared to current trends meant that “the grapes matured in September when temperatures and light levels were lower, so the aromas are a bit shy in the grapes, but in the bottle that gives a lot of room for the yeasty flavours to develop – so ’13 is more yeasty than fruity,” he said.

Moving on to the subsequent Grand Vintage expression, which hailed from the 2015 harvest, he said, “It is the exact opposite: it was influenced by our worst ever drought, and the warmest summer since ’61 – so it is really a year influenced by global warming.”

As a result, he recorded that the grapes had “a high intensity and development, so it is more fruity than yeasty – or at least it will take more time for the yeasty flavours to develop.”

In contrast, while commenting that “2013 is more about freshness, and ’15 is more about structure, with ’16, it is not as dramatic – there is not one climatic element that explains the profile.”

However, it was a “challenging year for the growers”, with a “mild winter; some frost in spring – the Aube lost 50% of its crop – then super rainy conditions, with 2.5 times more rain than usual, which meant that there was some mildew and a bit of odium; overall we lost 20% of the crop.”

“But the weather was good enough for maturity, although there was heterogeneity, but when tasting the 2016, I was happy with the result,” he said.

Indeed, due to “uneven quality”, Gouez had “a lot of different profiles to play with,” encouraging him to describe 2016 as “a winemakers’ vintage – in the sense that fermentations and blending make the profile of the vintage.”

He continued, “I haven’t tasted many 16s yet, but I expect more diversity in profile across producers than with ’13 and ’15.”

He also said that while the wines from 2016 were “uneven”, there was nothing “dramatic”, recalling that it was a vintage without drought nor heatwave, “giving us a lot of qualities to blend,” stating, “2016 is really a blended profile”.

“Finally. if you taste ’16, it has an almost equal balance between yeastiness and fruitiness: in 2016 we have both universes, with stone fruit – such as peach and apricot – and a nice reductive character too,” he said.

“On the palate it quite serene and seamless – I like say there is serenity after the storm, because the year was tough, but the wines are good.

“It is a blend that is complete… Whereas ’13 is more energetic and ’15 more structured, in the case of 16 it is balanced,” he added.

As he concluded, “With 2016, I like to take about excellence born of turbulence.”

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