By Patrick Schmitt

Last year’s wet growing conditions in Champagne affected everyone, but the real test came for organic growers, who – without the aid of systemic fungicides – saw their crop decimated. Nevertheless, they remain undeterred in pursuing their farming philosophy.

That was the message following conversations with a few of Champagne’s biggest organic grape growers, who saw, in some vineyards, their production from the 2024 harvest wiped out completely – costing them huge sums.

Whatever your approach to managing vines in Champagne, particularly badly hit was the Côte des Bars in the southerly Aube department, where some vignerons harvested nothing, others, if they were lucky, around 3-4,000kg/ha – a significant shortfall on the 10,000kg/ha limit set for 2024 by the controlling organisation, Comité Champagne.

Speaking last month to db about the conditions, Michel Drappier, who is head of Aube-based grower and maison Champagne Drappier, said that last year’s conditions were unprecedented.

“We are certified organic, so it is a nightmare to fight against mildew,” he said of the fungus that spread through his vineyards following wet summertime conditions.

“It is the worst crop of my working life, and it was my 50^th harvest – my first, as a picker in my teenaged years, was 1974, and that was not a good year, but this was worse,” he recalled.

In Urville, where Drappier is based, the average yield was 2-3000kg/ha he said, “but in some parts, we had almost zero”, he recorded, commenting that his pickers had scoured the vineyards, even if “there was just one grape in a row.”

Summing up the impact in monetary terms, he stated: “It has cost us a fortune.”

So why was it so bad? Just as the vines were budding in the spring, the Aube area of Champagne was hit by icy conditions, due to a mass of freezing air from eastern Europe, which Drappier dubbed “the Moscow-Paris”, and this damaged as much as 60% of the new buds in his vineyards (and surrounding areas).

Although the vine is able to produce shoots from secondary buds, these tend to be more fragile, with narrower sap canals, making them more susceptible to fungal attacks, according to Drappier.

And that meant, when mildew spread across the region following an unusually wet summer, the vines were less resistant to the fungal infection.

But the bad experience of last year’s harvest has not put him off organics, an approach he has long practiced on his estate – indeed, he is moving further towards non-interventionist vine management techniques, such as regenerative practices, which are beginning at Drappier, spearheaded by Michel’s son Hugo.

As for the “small crop” harvested last year by the property, “the grapes we have are fantastic quality, with no botrytis, and the wines we are tasting are really good,” he said, “And better than 2023” – a year that was contrasting in quantity: it produced the heaviest bunches ever picked in Champagne.

Don’t ditch organics

Elsewhere, at Champagne Telmont, which is based in Damery, not far from Epernay in the Marne Valley, “2024 was difficult”, according to cellar master Bertrand Lhôpital, who told db that more than 70% of the producer’s vineyards are farmed organically.

“We lost between 50-70% of grapes due to mildew,” he said, which will probably mean that the house won’t make any vintage Champagnes from the 2024 harvest, using all its crop to make non-vintage expressions – which blend in wines from preceding years.

The maximum yield recorded by an organic grape grower in Champagne last year was 7-8,000kg/ha according to Lhôpital, although “some lost 100%” he said, referring to producers in the Côte des Bar.

While he admitted that he has heard murmurings about ditching organics among some organic growers, he said that his advice would be not to take the decision too quickly.

Source: The Drinks Business