France is on track to record one of its smallest wine yields in over a century, particularly impacted are the Burgundy and Loire Valley regions, due to mildew and suboptimal fruit development following a rainy early summer, as per new estimates from the government.
The anticipated decline in wine production is marked at 18% to 39.3 million hectolitres, a more severe drop than earlier forecasts, noted on Friday by the agriculture ministry’s Agreste statistics bureau in a detailed regional report. This year’s production levels are amongst the lowest in a century, surpassed only by six others, including the years 2021 and 2017, according to government records.
‘The production downturn is largely attributed to adverse weather conditions that hampered the productive capability across nearly all viticulture areas,’ stated Agreste. The production is expected to be mildly above the 2021 levels, which suffered greatly due to severe frost.
Due to this decline, France might relinquish its title as the world’s leading wine producer to Spain, where farming cooperatives foresee a rise in production to 39.7 million hectolitres in 2024, recovering from previous conditions of drought and hail damage.
Many vineyards in France experienced a decline in both flowers and young berries, referred to as coulure, and saw an uneven grape size called millerandage, both due to the humid and cool weather conditions during the blooming period, as reported by Agreste. Downy mildew was prevalent in most viticultural regions, leading to major losses, and the adverse weather effects of frost and hail further decreased the production volumes.
The lowered production estimates were particularly revised after more accurate assessments of the blooming in regions that mature later, notably Charentes, known for producing wine that is distilled into Cognac, where there is an expected decrease in volume by 35%.
In combination, Burgundy and Beaujolais are set to produce 2.12 million hectolitres, marking a decrease of 25% compared to last year’s larger harvest as per the latest forecasts. In Burgundy’s Côte d’Or, mildew severely impacted production, and both regions suffered considerable losses due to disease and hail.
Production in the Loire Valley is estimated to decrease by 30% to 2.1 million hectolitres. The primary issues were cold and humid conditions during flowering, resulting in widespread mildew and coulure.
In Bordeaux, where 8,000 hectares of vines are being removed this year as part of a state-supported grubbing-up initiative, winemakers encountered numerous challenges including coulure and mildew, as well as hailstorms that impacted vineyards. Wine production is expected to decrease by 10% to 3.89 million hectolitres, marking the lowest output since 2017.
In Champagne, the production of AOP wine is predicted to decline by 19% to 2.34 million hectolitres, with the spring frost exacerbating issues such as poor fruit set, mildew, and hail. In Languedoc-Roussillon, the largest wine-producing region in France known mostly for its bulk sales, the total wine output is expected to drop by 4% to 10.6 million hectolitres.
Further south, including Provence, wine production is forecasted to decrease by 12% to 4.42 million hectolitres. In Alsace, the projected wine output is anticipated to decrease by 13% to 914,000 hectolitres. Among smaller wine regions in France, the Jura area faced significant losses, with a severe frost and mildew leading to a drastic reduction in production by 71% to 35,000 hectolitres.