The Drinks Business
Patrick Schmitt, writing for The Drinks Business, reports that Champagne is set to begin picking on 15 August, with warmer sites potentially starting five days sooner. Louis Roederer cellar master Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon confirmed the official date to db and singled out Montgueux, a chalk hill about 10 kilometers west of Troyes in the Aube sometimes called the Montrachet of Champagne, as a site that could go early. If Montgueux picks on 10 August, it will be the earliest harvest on record in the region.
From the article:
Should picking begin on 10 August in Montgueux, that would mark the earliest harvesting on record in Champagne, with Lécaillon noting that some had started bringing in grapes as early as 13 August in 2020, following an extremely hot summer – although the official start date that year was four days later.
The earliest official start to harvesting in Champagne on record is 2020, when picking began on 17 August. Next earliest is 2003, on 18 August – itself the first August start since 1822, when picking began on 20 August.
Other August harvests include 2007, 2011 (19 August) and 2018 (20 August), while last year – another hot vintage – was officially begun on 20 August, although Montgueux was granted a derogation to begin on 19 August.
The Drinks Business
James Bayley, also for The Drinks Business, reports that France’s prolonged summer heat and drought are shrinking grape development across Burgundy, Bordeaux and Champagne, with Champagne growers forecasting a crop around 10 percent smaller than last year. Laurent Delaunay, chairman of Burgundy’s BIVB, said growers can “see the potential melting away in the sun,” and that the main worry is water.
From the article:
In Burgundy and Bordeaux, where temperatures have been even higher, producers say it remains too early to quantify losses precisely but expect output to fall significantly.
While winemakers do not necessarily anticipate lower quality, prolonged heat and drought are increasing sugar accumulation in grapes, potentially affecting alcohol levels and flavour profiles.
Harvesting is also expected to begin unusually early elsewhere, with Bordeaux’s Crémant producers likely to start picking during the first week of August, while Burgundy’s harvest is expected to commence around 20 August.
Wine Business
Sarah Brown, writing for Wine Business, reports that record-breaking spring temperatures pushed budbreak weeks ahead of average in California, and that some Central Coast growers have already begun the 2026 sparkling harvest. Anthony Bozzano of Bozzano and Company confirmed a local winery picked Santa Rita Hills Pinot Noir for its sparkling program on June 30, arguably the earliest start in living memory. Other Central Coast vineyards are running three to four weeks ahead. The bigger story is size. Between shatter, reduced cluster sizes, vine removals and mothballing, growers and brokers statewide agree 2026 will be a small crop.
From the article:
Some growers in Paso Robles have told Bozzano that their Cabernet Sauvignon is looking to come in under two tons per acre and he has heard similarly low estimates for Cab growers in Napa. Others estimate their crop will be half its average tonnage.
But there is something of an upside to an especially small harvest this season
“While it’s a challenge for growers (especially those with contracts) to have a light harvest when market pricing is down, it will likely help push the market closer to “balance” if we have less surplus this year,” said Bozzano.
Courthouse News Service
Quinn Welsch, writing for Courthouse News Service, covers a study published in Frontiers in Climate that models how climate change could reshape where California wine gets made. Researchers mapped current and future climate suitability for grape cultivation across nearly 400 locations, mostly on the North Coast and Central Coast, using a 4-kilometer grid, two emissions scenarios, and three time periods: a 1976 to 2005 baseline, midcentury, and late century. The headline finding is that suitability in the historic regions, Napa, Sonoma, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara, is likely to decline under a worst-case scenario, while Mendocino and Monterey counties emerge as the standouts.
From the article:
“Our findings reveal that the outlook for Mendocino and Monterey is uniquely promising because of a dual trend,” study co-author Yusuke Hiraga of Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, said in a statement. “They are projected to experience both increasing climatic suitability for wine-growing and a decrease in extreme fire-weather days. This combination makes these areas stand out as comparatively favorable expansion zones, distinct from many other regions with either rising suitability alongside increased wildfire weather or declining suitability.”
