In Champagne, the pruning shears are not yet moving among the vines, while in the Fitou vineyard the presses are already stopped. An example of the diversity of French wine regions. It is at this crucial moment, in the middle of the harvest, that the Ministry of Agriculture publishes its new production forecast for the 2024 vintage and the outlook becomes darker. The harvest could fall by 18% in one year, below 40 million hectolitres, to 39.3 million, according to a press release published on Friday 6 September. The ministry is therefore revising downwards its first estimates made at the beginning of August, when it still counted on a volume of between 41 and 43 million.
“ I finished my harvest on Wednesday. My harvest is less than half of the potential of a normal year. In 2023, it is already down 40% “, notes Jean-Marie Fabre, president of the Independent Winegrowers, based in Fitou, in Aude. In this department, as in the Pyrénées-Orientales or Hérault, the drought has dashed hopes of a harvest. We had 217 mm of rain this year after 200 mm in 2023, when the limit set for talking about desert is 250 mm “, Fabre points out, of which 10% of the vines did not withstand the blowtorch effect of high temperatures and lack of water.
On the contrary, from Bordeaux to the Loire Valley, from Burgundy to Champagne via the Jura, excess water and lack of sunlight favoured the development of mildew and the battle was hard to try to stop the damage caused by the fungus. These repeated rains were accompanied by episodes of frost but above all hail. A bitter cocktail for farmers. As always, not all vineyards have suffered in the same way and even within a region or even an operation, the effects of the capricious climate are more or less profound.
Harvests down 71% in Jura
“ For a dozen winegrowers in the Côte des Bar, who have combined all the dangers: frost, hail and mould, the harvest will be zero “, estimates Maxime Toubart, president of the General Union of Champagne Winegrowers. On his estate, he expects to harvest between 7,000 and 9,000 kg/hectare. This is lower than the marketable yield set by the interprofessional association for 2024, of 10,000 kg/hectare. ” In three years we went from the driest year to the rainiest year “, he sums up.
But Champagne is not the region in the worst situation. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, the most pronounced declines would affect the Jura (-71%), Charente (-35%), Val de Loire (-30%) and Burgundy-Beaujolais (-25%). All these figures are estimates, but many bunches are still attached to the vines. This year’s harvest is not marked by its precocity, but rather returns to a more normal schedule.
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