French Champagne: Climate change influences harvest time

World
Europe

02:46

Climate change has influenced the harvesting of the Champagne Region in France. CGTN's Stefan de Vries has the story.

While Europe is recovering from its hottest summer ever, the Champagne growers in France enter the last week of harvest, almost three weeks earlier than usual.

THIBAULT LE MAILLOUX CHAMPAGNE TRADE UNION "This is only the fifth time that August harvest is happening in Champagne. We have seen it once in the early 19th Century and then five times over the last fifteen years."

Alain has been picking grapes in this region for almost forty years.

"There is less and less rain. We have the impression that the North has become the South."

THIBAULT LE MAILLOUX CHAMPAGNE TRADE UNION "Of course we are worried, for the ability of our children to be able to make champagne, if the weather is really hotter and drier."

"And then you have the risks linked to hot weather, such as dehydration of the vines, and then the grapes are smaller, and developing much more slowly. There is a conscious that we need to be more reactive."

Jérôme Deshours' is the owner of the wine house his grandfather started last Century. He already changed his production methods.

JEROME DESHOURS CHAMPAGNE PRODUCER DESHOURS & FILS "It's a big evolution. During my ten first years, I was born in October 1966, it was always harvest when it was my birthday."

Climate change is worrying Jérôme.

JEROME DESHOURS CHAMPAGNE PRODUCER DESHOURS & FILS "I think we have to adapt, of course. More and more we will have to harvest earlier and we have to adapt to press the grapes quickly. I think it's not negative. I think I'm making best now than maybe 30 years ago."

And that's a Paradox. On the short term, warmer summers are beneficial to the region. But in the long term, the wine will profoundly change.

STEFAN DE VRIES CHAMPAGNE REGION, FRANCE "The winemakers in the Champagne Region in France are witnessing climate change every day. And they know that if they want to continue making one of the world's finest wines, they have only one option: to adapt. This is Stefan de Vries, in the Champagne Region in France, for CGTN."