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Champagne’s 2024 harvest: small but mighty
Ten days of sun in September “saved the harvest” in Champagne in 2024, according to Perrier-Jouët winemaker Séverine Frerson, providing good balance and maturity despite reduced yields.
Prior to September, 2024 would have been considered a rainy year in Champagne, confronting winemakers in the region with a series of challenges to overcome.
It wasn’t until mid-August that the rain began to let up, and in the end, just 10 days of sun in September “saved the harvest”, Frerson told db at a vins clairs tasting of the latest vintage last week.
“This year, at first it was not easy because it was so complicated, but in the end we are very happy with the results,” she said to a group of international journalists visiting the maison to taste the vins clairs of the 2024 harvest.
Perrier-Jouët, the Épernay-based maison owned by Pernod Ricard, began picking on 15 September. Frerson said the high quality of grapes was an important positive considering the significantly reduced yields. Yields in the south of Champagne were worst impacted, with a “very very small quantity” of grapes. The north fared slightly better, “but the quantity is very much reduced”, Frerson said.
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Yann Munier, the new cellar master at fellow Pernod Ricard-owned Champagne house Maison Mumm, agreed with Frerson’s characterisation of the vintage. “The 2024 harvest turned out to be a wonderful surprise for Maison Mumm, with grapes of extraordinary quality making up for the low quantities,” he said.
So what can we expect from the wines?
Frerson said the Champagne harvest reminded her of the famous vintages of the 1990s, offering “good balance, structure and acidity”.
The percentage of reserve wines used in non-vintage wines will be reduced this year due to the “delicate aromas and precision of the wines”, she added.
The year 2024 was in direct opposition to the previous harvest in Champagne, which produced wines which were “very open” due to the extreme heat. The “maturity was so high”, Frerson said, thanks to temperatures reaching 40°C during picking.
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