Paris As far as the eye can see, vines stretch across the Champagne hills between Reims and Épernay. The expanse gives the impression of wine in abundance. The area is 34,200 hectares, which is four percent of all French arable land. Seven grape varieties are allowed in champagne, with Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Meunier being common. And every single grape, which is later mixed with other varieties to form a cuveé, must be harvested in the protected growing area.
This form of scarcity has always made champagne a luxury good. But since luxury is once again doing well in the crisis and demand has risen sharply, contrary to expectations, stocks are now threatening to run out. “We are expecting a new record year in 2022,” says Christian Josephi, representative of the Champagne Committee for Germany and Austria, to the Handelsblatt.
From October 2021 to September 2022, 335 million bottles have already been sold. This means that 2022 could well surpass the historic year 2007 with 339 million bottles, despite uncertainties such as the Ukraine war. Already in 2021, after a difficult first year of the pandemic, champagne celebrated records. Champagne deliveries increased by 31 percent compared to 2020, compared to the pre-crisis level in 2019 it was 7.7 percent.
At 5.7 billion euros, sales were higher than ever, and a total of 320.2 million bottles were sold, according to figures from the champagne association Comité Champagne (CIVC, Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne). The US, followed by the UK, Japan and Germany in 4th place, are the largest champagne customers by volume and revenue.
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After stores and restaurants reduced their stocks in 2020, stocks were sold out last year. This year they are therefore building up additional inventories. Many stock up because they fear shortages and rising prices.
The younger generation still need time
However, according to regulations, a bottle ferments and lies in the region’s cellars for at least 15 months before it is ready for sale. In the reality of most houses, this maturity takes several years. A decision that the winegrowers made in 2020 is now becoming a problem. It was determined that the yield per hectare should be reduced from the normal 10,000 to 12,000 kilos of grapes to 8,000 kilos because of fears of low demand and falling prices.
The decision was revised in 2021, but the rainy summer meant that the harvest volume of ten tons of grapes was hardly reached.
Only this year did the harvest for Champagne go well due to the warm summer. Exceptionally, it was decided that up to 16,500 kilos per hectare may be harvested. “But the 2022 vintage will not be drunk until 2024 at the earliest. By then it could be tight,” fears Josephi. Especially with a view to the upcoming festival season, traditionally the strongest in terms of sales.
>> Read here: Head of the champagne house Taittinger fights against the crisis – and powerful men
The big houses like Vranken Pommery have reserves in their huge cellars, but popular cuvées could become scarce. In the chalk cliffs, 116 steps, 30 meters deep below Reims, bottles of Pommery are stored on a tunnel length of 18 kilometers – alongside changing art exhibitions. Cellar tours are a tourist magnet in the region.
Because not only at Pommery there are millions of bottles. Champagne from Ruinart and Veuve Clicquot as well as Taittinger, the largest family-owned house, are also stored there in more than 200 kilometers of underground galleries. Vranken Pommery is behind the luxury group LVMH (Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, 66.8 million bottles 2021) the number two of the large groups in Champagne with almost 20 million bottles a year. The Pommery brand alone comes to five million.
Sustainability also in the Champagne mega-topic
But apart from the availability of large storage capacities, smaller houses often cannot necessarily afford to keep large stocks – they tie up a lot of capital. Winemaker Cédric Moussé, fourth generation of the family business founded in 1923 in Champagne Moussé Fils in Cuisles, west of the regional capital Épernay, says: “I no longer receive anyone in my estate for retail sale, all the bottles have been ordered by dealers and restaurants.” He produces 115,000 bottles in the year. The direct sale at the wineries is touristically formative for the region.
Mousse has already tackled the next topic of the future: sustainability. In his vineyards, small black sheep from Normandy and chickens eat pests and grass between the vines. He experiments with other plants between wine to strengthen it. Tomatoes could grow there soon.
More is being harvested again in the cultivation area, but this only helps with a delay against bottlenecks.
(Photo: Reuters)
Starting next year, he also wants to send his wine to New York on sailing ships in order to produce less CO2. It only takes a week longer than usual, then 28 days. “It’s wine, not a salad, so no problem,” he says. According to figures from the CIVC, 63 percent of the areas are cultivated sustainably, although organic only accounts for a small proportion. Methods to use less fertilizer and pesticides are being explored, and recycling is becoming increasingly important.
The Champagne Association has a budget of ten million euros a year for research. The program was started in 2001. In addition to the image of a green region, the main focus is on the sustainability of Champagne and the preservation of the cultivated areas. By 2030, the area wants to produce 100 percent sustainably and thus make a contribution to climate protection. This is not altruistic: climate change is also threatening the harvests of Champagne. And nobody here can just move.
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