Extreme heat spurs earliest-ever Champagne harvest

Sweltering summer temperatures look set to spur the earliest Champagne harvest on record and potentially one of the most challenging. The French region’s winemakers face lower crop yields, weaker consumer demand and a threat to the iconic drink’s famed fresh taste.

The Champagne season officially starts on Aug. 15 this year, with the majority of picking expected between Aug. 20 and 25, around two weeks earlier than usual in recent years. Before the early 2000s, harvesting the grapes of the sparkling wine — which brought in $6.6 billion in sales revenues last year — almost always took place in September or October. 

But hotter springs and summers are accelerating the grape-ripening process, creating more sugary fruit and narrowing the optimum picking window for Champagne. 

Winemakers are torn between harvesting early to reduce the amount of sugar in the fruit, but risking the ability to achieve the correct balance of acidity and so-called “phenolic ripeness,” the point when tannins and other compounds have matured enough to deliver the desired flavor and texture.

“With great wine grapes, you want the maturation process to be slow. This is true with most fruit,” said Linda Johnson-Bell, founder of the Wine & Climate Change Institute consultancy. 

A short growing window can be more easily disguised in red wines, many of which have increased their alcohol content in recent years due to more sugary grapes. But it is a particular challenge in Champagne, where the drink’s “identity is its tautness, its high acidity, low sugar, its finesse, its elegance,” Johnson-Bell said.

Along with a warming trend pushing harvesting seasons earlier, European wine growers are up against drought, freak weather events such as spring hailstorms and frost which wiped out many buds, and wildfires.

In the macro picture they also face waning demand for alcoholic drinks, higher labor and fuel costs, and the complication of tariffs in the U.S., Champagne’s largest export market.

Some winemakers are reacting by pulling out vineyards, changing their grape varieties, moving further north or introducing irrigation systems. But high-end variants such as Champagne are restricted by their appellation, which protects where its grapes can be grown and how, including a ban on the watering of adult vines.

Champagne growers are developing various techniques to protect grape clusters, a representative from trade association Comité Champagne told CNBC. Those include the use of insect-proof greenhouses and experimenting with new grape varieties, along with the creation of an R&D center to explore further solutions. 

Producers have also trimmed their quota of yield permitted for sale this year, a decision…