This afternoon Tom and I sat down to chat about some of Champagne’s challenges in an ever tighter sparkling wine market. We had set out to talk about the broader market, but got stuck in the place we know best: Champagne.
It is not just Champagne which has to face issues. I had my own technical issues and got bumped out of my own video when my phone overheated. (duh) I cannot download the videos to edit them into one, so we will go with two posts. I am posting the longest one - once I got back online after my phone cooled down - first, as it is the one where we cover the most ground.
In this video, we delved into Champagne’s desirability, which seems to have taken a hit, according to the sales figures. When then moved onto how the maximum appellation is set and the yields, looking at how closely they are linked and how smaller yields are likely to change the balance in Champagne in the medium to long term. Tom drew a quick comparison with Cava, and spoke about UK yields to contrast what is happening in Champagne.
We also touched on density - more specifically lower density planting (VSL) - and how likely this new way of planting will be embraced in the future (we differ in our opinion of this ) and again how this may impact yielding.
Not withstanding the tentative move to VSL, we both pointed out Champagne seems to struggle to embrace change. Tom questioned how this would play out, and this is where we closed the discussion.
We really covered a lot of ground in this video, and bouncing off each other, we unearthed some hidden nuggets of knowledge. This chat really enriched me (Thank you
!) and I hope it will be informational for all of you as well.
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