Champagne region is committed to the future

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For over 100 years, Champagne growers and houses have been working together to manage and protect the interests of the appellation collectively.

Champagne growers and houses met in Epernay within the Comité Champagne and agreed on the circumstances of the next harvest and on the new strategic directions for the sector.

Champagne strengthens its resilience

The "Champagne reserve", made up of wines from previous years, makes it possible to compensate for a difficult harvest. This strategy proved effective in 2021, after a very difficult year. In order to improve the resilience of the sector, a new initiative will complete the “Champagne reserve”: the “deferred release of the reserve”.

This principle consists of generating a "deferred release reserve credit" for a grower when the quantities harvested and the reserve prove insufficient to reach the available yield set for the year. This credit, managed by the Comité Champagne, can be used over the next three years as the reserve gets replenished. The objective is to provide the means to reach the available yield set by Comité Champagne each year, in order to ensure market balance.

2022 should be a very good year for shipments

Grapes harvested this year will produce the bottles of Champagne that will be on consumers' tables in several years. Everything leads us to believe that the current sustained demand (1) will continue for a long time. Moreover, to date, the Champagne vineyard is in an excellent sanitary state (2). Champagne growers and houses have decided together to set an available yield of 12,000 kg/ha for the 2022 harvest. This is the highest level in 15 years (2007).

The people of Champagne begin a new chapter

In 2020, the pandemic had an impact on sales, which fell by 18%. In 2021, while sales hugely recovered, the harvest was cut in half by frost, mildew and hail.

The Champagne growers and houses were able to get through these two difficult years thanks to the collective knowledge developed over several decades. This pandemic proved the importance of being prepared. It’s for this reason that Comité Champagne has been asked to help strengthen necessary actions to further support professionals and meet the challenges of the industry, including:

Production: to offer consumers a sustainable, sufficient, qualitative supply that meets environmental requirements.
Regulation: to overcome the extreme variations from one year to the next.
Desirability: so that Champagne consistently retains its unique place in consumers hearts over the years.
Name Protection: to reinforce Comité Champagne’s actions in favour of the appellation worldwide.

For the next ten years, Comité Champagne’s resources will be substantially reinforced to progress further research and development initiatives, as well as economic regulation activities and protecting and promoting the Champagne appellation.

Once again, collectively, Champagne growers and houses are acting to prepare for the future, to renew their ambitions, to live up to their prestigious appellation and to ensure that Champagne remains availabledesirable and exemplary.

Epernay, 20th July, 2022

Press contact :
Comité Champagne
03 26 51 19 30
info@champagne.fr

(1) Les expéditions de la Champagne au premier semestre 2022 avoisinent les 130 millions de bouteilles, soit +13,8% comparé à la même période de 2021. L’export, avec 79,6 millions de bouteilles, progresse de 16,8% tandis que la France enregistre une hausse de 9,3% avec 50,3 millions de bouteilles
(2) A date, le vignoble champenois est dans un excellent état sanitaire. Les pertes dues aux gelées de printemps et aux premiers orages de grêle sont évaluées à moins de 9% du potentiel de récolte. Les vendanges s’annoncent précoces, elles devraient commencer dans la dernière décade du mois d’août.