2024 Champagne Vintage

The Comite Champagne's communique of 19 July 2024 sets out the shape of the year. Since the start of the year the vineyard had been particularly wet. A lack of sunshine and a cool start to the vegetative period left the whole vineyard under strong downy mildew pressure, which the Comite described as controlled but only at the cost of a great deal of work. Spring frost and hail together cut harvest potential by around 10 percent, and by mid-July the vine was five to six days behind the ten-year average, with picking forecast to begin around 10 to 12 September. Maxime Toubart, president of the winegrowers, contrasted the year directly with its predecessor: after a particularly hot and dry 2023, 2024 was exceptionally rainy, which complicated work in the vineyard, and he flagged that weather between then and picking would determine the size of the crop. The damage was very unevenly spread. Spring frosts in late April caused losses of up to 80 percent in parts of the Cote des Bar, and hail hit the Marne Valley on 12 May across around 500 hectares. Downy mildew then entered flowers and young grapes at the end of June and into July. That is terminal for affected bunches, unlike leaf infection which a vine can partly replace, and it was the worst many in the Aube could remember. By the time Decanter visited during the September harvest, Reims and the Marne Valley in the north had come through with a modest crop, ripening through a much-needed dry spell in mid-September, while the Aube in the south had been hit hardest of all.

• An exceptionally wet season from January, with a lack of sunshine and a cool start to the vegetative period driving strong downy mildew pressure
• Spring frost and hail cut around 10 percent of harvest potential; the vineyard ran five to six days behind the ten-year average by mid-July
• Late April frost caused losses of up to 80 percent in parts of the Cote des Bar; hail hit around 500 hectares of the Marne Valley on 12 May
• Downy mildew entered flowers and young grapes from late June into July, which is terminal for affected bunches
• The Comite Champagne forecast harvest starting around 10 to 12 September; Reims and the Marne Valley ripened through a dry spell in mid-September

Decanter's Tom Hewson reported that the one thread running through every part of Champagne in 2024 was downy mildew. At Champagne Drappier in Urville, in the southern Cote des Bar, Hugo Drappier looked out over vineyards carrying barely a tenth of their usual yield and said that while frost had not hit them badly, the mildew had hit them worse. Ordinarily downy mildew is controlled either with copper-based sprays, used by organic producers and needing constant re-treatment, or with systemic fungicides. In 2024 the sheer pressure of the year put everyone in the same position. Emilien Boutillat, cellar master at Piper-Heidsieck, reported that their organic trials came through well but that missing a single treatment meant losing the fruit. The consequences reach beyond one harvest: much of Champagne's red wine destined for rose is made in Les Riceys, and there was far less of it to go round.

• Hugo Drappier in Urville: vineyards carrying barely a tenth of their usual yield, hit worse by mildew than by frost
• Emilien Boutillat of Piper-Heidsieck: organic trials came through well, but missing one treatment meant losing the fruit
• Copper sprays and systemic fungicides were both stretched by the pressure of the year, levelling organic and conventional growers
• Less red wine from Les Riceys means less base material for rose across the region

Quality did not track yield. Charles Philipponnat told Decanter that 2024 was a healthier year than 2023, on the grounds that downy mildew cuts yield without necessarily affecting quality. Meunier in the Marne Valley was not the main casualty of the rain that many expected: Severine Frerson, cellar master at Perrier-Jouet, described it as better than the previous year, with fruitiness and freshness the characteristics of the year and a very good vintage possible. Chardonnay, despite ripening later, yielded better, probably by missing the worst of the weather at flowering. Vitalie Taittinger said she was confident of some beautiful Chardonnay while sounding more reticent on the Pinots, and a walk through the Cote des Blancs showed limited mildew damage and moderate yields on Chardonnay, though maturity was extremely heterogeneous.

• Charles Philipponnat: a healthier year than 2023, since mildew cuts yield without necessarily hurting quality
• Severine Frerson of Perrier-Jouet: Marne Valley Meunier better than the previous year, with fruitiness and freshness the marks of the year
• Chardonnay yielded better despite ripening later, apparently missing the worst of the flowering weather
• The Cote des Blancs showed limited mildew damage and moderate Chardonnay yields, though maturity was extremely heterogeneous

The 10,000 kg per hectare yield set on 19 July 2024 was a market decision as much as an agronomic one. Champagne shipments in the first half of 2024 came to 106.7 million bottles, down 15.2 percent on the same period in 2023, which had been a record half-year outside 2022, and back to roughly 2019 levels. David Chatillon, president of the houses, attributed the softness to the gloomy geopolitical and economic climate and generalised inflation weighing on household consumption, along with the continuing consequences of distributor overstocking in 2021 and 2022. The low crop also put pressure on Champagne's reserve system. Under the reserve interprofessionnelle, wine can be held back from a previous harvest, blocked from being bottled as Champagne, at a rolling maximum equivalent to 10 tonnes per hectare. Growers with almost no grapes in 2024 were forced to draw down nearly all of that reserve, leaving little cushion for the following year, while those who had reserved weaker 2023 wine faced a difficult choice about whether to use it or take the hit.

• Marketable yield cut to 10,000 kg/ha on 19 July 2024, down from 11,400 kg/ha in 2023, to reflect the shipping market
• First-half 2024 shipments of 106.7 million bottles, down 15.2 percent year on year and close to 2019 levels
• Chatillon cited geopolitical and economic gloom, inflation, and distributor overstocking in 2021 and 2022
• The reserve interprofessionnelle, capped at the equivalent of 10 tonnes per hectare, was heavily drawn down, leaving little cushion for the next short year

Champagne has no collective vintage declaration, so 2024 was never going to be declared or not declared as a region. Each house decides for itself, and those decisions are taken over the years that follow as base wines are assessed. For 2024 the sources consulted here treat declaration as an open question rather than a settled one. This was a difficult, rainy, mildew-pressured year with low and very uneven yields, and trade coverage at harvest was focused on volume, reserve wine, and heterogeneous maturity rather than on vintage bottling. Several cellar masters were nonetheless positive about specific components, particularly Marne Valley Meunier and Cote des Blancs Chardonnay, so the possibility of individual vintage cuvees from favoured sectors is not ruled out by anything in these sources. No verified house-by-house list of 2024 declarations appears in them, and this article does not assert one.

• No collective Comite Champagne declaration exists; 2024's status is decided house by house over the years following the harvest
• Trade coverage at harvest focused on low yields, reserve wine and uneven maturity rather than vintage bottling
• Positive component-level reads on Marne Valley Meunier and Cote des Blancs Chardonnay leave room for selective vintage cuvees
• No verified house-by-house declaration list for 2024 appears in the sources used for this article