2018 Champagne Vintage

Growers and houses saw record winter rainfall, with 345mm falling from November 2017 to January 2018, beating the previous high of 338mm set in 1965. The rain fully recharged the soils; winter then set in late, in February, and lasted until the end of March. Budburst came 2 to 3 days behind the ten-year average, but from early April temperatures held at or above normal, with 750 hours of sunshine from April to June against an average of 630. Storms followed: the first hit the Cote des Bar and the Vitryat on 29 April, and storms, some carrying hail, struck from May to July, totally destroying more than 900 hectares. April to June rainfall ranged from about 100 mm on the Massif de Saint-Thierry to more than 350 mm in the Cote des Bar. Average full flowering came on 1 June. From mid-June the weather turned hot and very dry, a general, continuous drought never before seen over such a long period in Champagne. At 19.63 C, summer 2018 displaced 2003 (19.36 C) as the hottest on the appellation's records. Soils lost 50 to 80% of their water between flowering and veraison, and the first water stress showed at the end of July on sensitive plots in the Cote des Bar and the Massif de Saint-Thierry, though few plots were strongly affected and the chalk subsoil acted as a water reservoir. Occasional showers kept hydric stress at bay and allowed gradual ripening, with harvest commencing on 20 August. The ban des vendanges was announced in July for 22 August with the option to bring it forward; the harvest commission met on 17 August and published the ban the next day. The marketable yield was set at 10,800 kg/ha and the agronomic yield was 18,200 kg/ha.

• Record winter rain: 345mm from November 2017 to January 2018, ahead of 338mm in 1965
• Warm, stormy spring and early flowering, with average full flowering on 1 June
• Hottest summer on the appellation's records at 19.63 C, and more than 900 hectares totally destroyed by hail from May to July
• Harvest commencing on 20 August

The Comite Champagne's executive bureau met on 24 July 2018, when representatives of the Syndicat general des vignerons and the Union des maisons de Champagne set the harvest at 10,800 kg per hectare, as in the previous year. The reserve allowance rose from 3,100 kg/ha to 4,700 kg/ha, within a total reserve limit of 8,000 kg, and the two volumes together reached the appellation's ceiling of 15,500 kg/ha. The harvest should let the trade rebuild its interprofessional reserve, largely used over the previous two campaigns. Bunch counts and weights were high: 12.1 bunches per square metre against a ten-year average of 10.6, record bunch weights for all three varieties, with estimated final weights from 125 grams for Cote des Bar Pinot Noir to 175 grams for Cote des Blancs Chardonnay, and an agronomic yield of 18,200 kg/ha.

• Marketable yield: 10,800 kg/ha, set on 24 July 2018, as in 2017
• Reserve release raised from 3,100 to 4,700 kg/ha, within a total reserve limit of 8,000 kg
• Agronomic yield of 18,200 kg/ha
• Bunch weights averaged an estimated 150 grams at harvest

Decanter reported that the red grapes, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, seemed to have a slight advantage in the summer heat and reached a remarkable level of ripeness. Claude Giraud of Henri Giraud in Ay said, "We achieved excellent phenolic maturity, so the tannins are impeccable." Chardonnay, in Decanter's words, "struggled to maintain acidity a bit in the heat", though the results were excellent, if short of the Pinot Noir. On a network of 30 plots, total acidity fell from 7.1 g/L on 16 August to 4.1 g/L on 23 August, the lowest ever recorded there. No statistical link was found between total acidity at harvest and vintage quality, and rot was close to zero, comparable to 2012 and 2009.

• Total acidity on a 30-plot network fell to 4.1 g/L by 23 August

Decanter's report called 2018 "truly exceptional for Champagne", with initial wines "dense yet fresh and should be long lasting", and said it was destined to be remembered for both quality and quantity. Gilles Descotes, Bollinger's cellarmaster, said, "I experienced this vintage as a relief. As in 2017, we began picking in August, but this time, everything was superb." He called it "the synthesis of several contrasting vintages; 2003 for its precocity, 2004 for its quantity, and 2002 for its analytical profile". Climate change has shifted growers' priority from reaching ripeness to protecting vines from summer heat and hydric stress, and Claude Giraud said producers would need "a sea change in our mindset".

• Decanter: "truly exceptional for Champagne", with wines dense yet fresh
• Gilles Descotes of Bollinger compared 2018 to 2003 for precocity, 2004 for quantity and 2002 for its analytical profile
• Decanter: "Harvesting ripe grapes is the new paradigm for the region."