Harvest workers pick grapes in a vineyard during the 2025 Champagne harvest in Hautviers, northeastern France, on August 28, 2025.
François Nassimbeni | AFP | Getty Images
Sweltering summer temperatures are likely to make the Champagne harvest one of the earliest and perhaps the most difficult on record. Winemakers in the French region are facing declining crop yields, weak consumer demand and threats to the iconic drink’s famous fresh taste.
This year’s Champagne season officially begins on August 15th, with the bulk of the harvest scheduled to take place between August 20th and 25th, about two weeks earlier than in recent years. Until the early 2000s, the sparkling wine grape harvest, which brought in $6.6 billion in sales revenue last year, was mostly harvested in September or October.
However, hot spring and summer temperatures accelerate the ripening process of the grapes, producing more sugar-rich fruit and narrowing the optimal harvest window for Champagne.
Mutigny in northeastern France is home to Champagne vineyards.
Andia | Universal Images Group | Getty Images
Winemakers are struggling with whether to harvest early to reduce the amount of sugar in the fruit or risk achieving the right balance of acidity and so-called “phenolic maturity,” where tannins and other compounds are mature enough to provide the desired flavor and texture.
“For great wine grapes, you want to slow down the ripening process, and this is true for most fruits,” says Linda Johnson-Bell, founder of the Wine & Climate Change Institute consultancy.
Red wines can more easily disguise their short growing season, many of which have increased alcohol content due to increased sugar content in the grapes in recent years. But it’s a special challenge in Champagne, where the drink’s “identity is its tension, high acidity, low sugar content, finesse and elegance,” Johnson-Bell said.
adapt to survive
In addition to the warming trend leading to earlier harvests, European wine producers are facing drought, extreme weather events such as spring hailstorms and frosts that wipe out many buds, and wildfires.
Macro-wise, the company faces declining demand for alcoholic beverages, rising labor and fuel costs, and increasingly complex tariffs in the United States, Champagne’s largest export market.
Some winemakers are responding by clearing vineyards, changing grape varieties, moving further north, or installing irrigation systems. But premium varietals such as Champagne are restricted by appellations, which protect where and how the grapes are grown, including prohibitions on watering mature grapes.
Champagne producers have developed a variety of techniques to protect grape clusters, a representative from the industry group Comité Champagne told CNBC. These include the use of insect-proof greenhouses, experimentation with new grape varieties and the establishment of a research and development center to explore further solutions.
Producers have also reduced their quota for the harvest allowed to be sold this year, a decision taken to balance stocks, maintain quality and protect vineyards amid “harsh” weather conditions and “low” demand in France, the Champagne Board said in a release last month.
Luca Sorca, Bernstein’s global head of luxury goods, said in an email that companies selling finished products will have little worry about this year’s harvest because “quality looks promising and the industry can afford to reduce inventories.”
Jean-Claude Mas, founder of Domaine Port-Mas Côté-Mas, which produces red, white and rosé in southern France’s Languedoc region, said his vineyards so far have defied gloomy expectations and are looking “beautiful” since harvest began earlier this month.
“I haven’t seen a year like this in the last 30 years. We’ve had a heat wave since the end of May. It’s been very stressful, but it looks like we’re going to have a really good harvest this year. My analysis of it is that nature’s ability to adapt is amazing,” he said.
A bright opportunity for British winemakers?
The earlier grape harvest is also being seen in the UK, which has a relatively small but growing wine industry, producing around 16.5 million bottles last year and exports increasing by 55%, according to official data.
Fergus Elias, director of wine at Balfour Winery, said from his vineyard in Suffolk, England: “It’s amazing how quickly harvests have come in the last generation.” As a child, I remember that my winemaker father would start the harvest by early October and finish the harvest by mid-November at the latest.
“If you really wanted to, you could pick these vines and make a decent wine out of them,” he said this week.
“But the growing season is still long enough in England…I’m very excited,” he added.
The warm climate is allowing new varieties of grapes to grow on Britain’s calcareous soils, similar to those in northern France. The opportunity has also attracted attention from French producers, with Champagne house Taittinger acquiring land in Kent to make English sparkling wine.
“Climate change has been talked about as making British wine more sustainable, but it comes with many challenges,” says Elias. “This year we had a late spring frost in mid-May, but fortunately we have locations across the country and are geographically safe to some extent.”
Meanwhile, industry insiders are confident that Champagne’s innovations will be enough to maintain the drink’s status and quality well into the future.
“The Champagne family will do everything to protect its product. They have been working on this issue for decades,” Linda Johnson Bell said. “Maybe I’m a romantic, but I just see how Champagne always survives.”
