Rules, Regulations & complications galore around the harvest in Champagne

When to start picking As if life wasn’t difficult enough for grape growers and wine makers wherever in the world they may be, when it comes to the harvest in Champagne, there seems to be an extra level of complication, or to be more accurate, several extra layers. Too many in fact to explain in just one short article, so let’s deal with them one topic at a time starting with the decision about when to start picking. You might assume that each vineyard owner would simply check the ripeness of his or her crop as the fruit matured on the vines and decide on the right moment to start picking. To a large extent this is still the case, but things are a little more complex than that. There are some 320 villages in Champagne and these are spread out over an area that, broadly speaking, is 120 km square. You can imagine that the variations in location mean that the grapes in one area don’t always ripen at exactly the same rate as the grapes in another. In addition, there are three main varietie

by jiles@mymaninchampagne.com (Jiles Halling) · source ↗