Pristine Chardonnay picked in Châtillon-sur-Marne on Thursday.
I’ve just returned from Champagne having popped over to write a few impressions on harvest 2023 for Decanter. Anyone who can tell you exactly how the wines are going to be at this stage is bluffing - harvest is still ongoing, and this year is going to be complex - but it is possible to see a few themes. Keep an eye out for the report in the coming days.
Grey matter
Judging at a competition recently, one of my fellow judges was surprised at just how many wines I was claiming showed some botrytis or rot notes (probably at least one per flight during a particularly variable session). “Are you sure?! This much?” Most wine folks, in my experience, are bloodhounds for particular problems in wine; one notable critic I was talking to in Champagne is super-attuned to stalky/vegetal flavours. Another is a lightstrike machine. Another has long-range radar for oxidation. If you put us all together we’d be a tough bunch.
Rot (of one kind or another) is a nagging problem in Champagne, popping up once or twice a decade. There’s some understandable incredulity at the fact that examples of the world’s most prestigious wine should, upon occasion, be unclean. It’s a reminder, though, that there are two Champagnes; the Champagne of quantity, and the champagne of quality. Here’s how rot makes into the former (and, occasionally, the latter)
Climatic conditions.
Botrytis needs heat and moisture. If Champagne sees plenty of Atlantic weather systems, interspersed with heat spikes (and, as with 2023, tight bunches which can get damaged as the berries expand), some degree of botrytis is hard to avoid. Dryer Augusts reduce the risk significantly, as does rain during cooler periods or earlier in the season. If you’re not on top of your treatments, or are unlucky enough to be in a humid part of Champagne (particularly with the Pinots), then problems will pop up.
The way the grape market works.
If you’re selling grapes, you sell by the kilo. Most houses don’t sort bunch-by-bunch upon arrival at the press (unless for the most expensive wines), so this has to happen in the vineyard. Anything you remove (below the permitted yield), you don’t get paid for. Some buyers will rate, check and (if necessary) reject your grapes fastidiously: at Bollinger’s press house in Aÿ this year, every stack of crates was inspected, top-to-bottom (no loading the best grapes on top, guys!), and tested for gluconic acid (which indicate botrytis levels). They were then rated, A, B, C, or D (D being a fail).
Others don’t take this level of care. Rotten juice will be pressed (I tasted some in 2023 and it ain’t pretty), and it’s quite likely to end up somewhere - possibly heavily treated and sold on to a bottom-feeder for inclusion in a no-frills cuvée or cheap buyers-own-label. Even decent houses, forced to make up volumes and keep supply fairly consistent, made rot-affected wines in 2017. It can also enter via reserve wines; it doesn’t take much to taint a blend.
Sub-prime
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