Champagne houses of the LVMH group, which includes luxury brands such as Moët & Chandon are hoping for a 'promising' harvest this year as the grape harvest season officially kicked off on 9 September.
With periods of intense heat, late-blooming, and heatwaves, the year is being considered as an 'atypical' one, LVMH said.
Each of the LVMH Maisons – Dom Pérignon, Moët & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot, Ruinart, Krug and Mercier – has a distinctive vision of the harvest, taking into account orientations decided jointly with professionals from the Champagne winemaking sector, the group said.
“Our approach is both qualitative and stylistic. Each Maison has its own signature,” explained Vincent Chaperon, Cellar Master of Dom Pérignon.
It has set great hopes for the 2019 vintage as the sugar concentration in grapes was twice the expected level at the end of August - a factor that stimulates the maturation process.
According to Chaperon, the hot weather and absence of rain during maturation will result in "concentration and richness", while the relatively high level of acidity in the grapes could lead to "a certain tension" in the future wines.
The Harvest Season
Every year, thousands of seasonal workers flow into the region to help with the harvests.
In Champagne, grapes are harvested by hand to keep the bunches intact, thereby ensuring optimal pressing.
This year around 5,000 people will work for three weeks to harvest grapes from each of the Champagne estates which are spread across an area of 17 square kilometres, LVMH added.
© 2019 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Donna Ahern. Click subscribe to sign up for the Checkout print edition.
