France is expected to produce one of its smallest vintages of the past century, with Burgundy and the Loire Valley particularly hard hit by mildew and poor fruit set after an unusually wet start to the summer, according to an updated government forecast.
Wine production is estimated to fall 18% to 39.3 million hectolitres, a bigger drop than predicted a month ago, the agriculture ministry’s Agreste statistics unit said on Friday in a first breakdown of volumes by growing region. France produced only six smaller vintages in the past hundred years, including in 2021 and 2017, government data show.
‘This decline is due to particularly unfavourable weather conditions, which have reduced production potential in almost all wine-growing regions,’ Agreste said. Production ‘would remain slightly higher than the 2021 harvest, which was marked by a severe frost’.
The slump means France may lose its spot as the world’s largest wine producer, with Spain’s farm cooperatives expecting local volumes to climb to 39.7 million hectolitres in 2024 as growers there rebound from last year’s drought and hailstorms.
Many vineyards across France were affected by dropping of flowers and young berries, or coulure, as well as a variation in grape size, or millerandage, both the consequence of humid, cool weather during flowering, according to Agreste. Downy mildew affected most wine-growing areas, sometimes causing ‘significant losses’, while frost and hail also reduced volumes.
The production estimate was revised downward in particular because of a better assessment of flowering results in later growing regions, particularly Charentes, which produces the wine distilled into Cognac and where volumes are forecast to slump 35%.
Burgundy and Beaujolais will jointly produce 2.12 million hectolitres of wine, down 25% from a relatively big harvest from last year, according to the forecast. Mildew hurt production particularly in Burgundy’s Côte d’Or region, while disease and hail caused significant losses in Beaujolais.
Loire Valley volumes are estimated to fall 30% to 2.1 million hectolitres, after grapevines there flowered in cold and humid conditions, with mildew and coulure the main culprits.
In Bordeaux, where 8,000 hectares of vines is being uprooted this year as part of a government-backed grubbing-up plan, growers suffered a wide range of setbacks including again coulure and mildew, as well as hailstorms that damaged vineyards. Volumes are estimated to fall 10% to 3.89 million hectolitres to the lowest since 2017, the data show.
Champagne output of AOP wine is estimated to slump 19% to 2.34 million hectolitres, with spring frost an additional factor on top of poor fruit set, mildew and hail. In Languedoc-Roussillon, France’s biggest growing area and which sells much of its production in bulk, the volume of all wines is estimated to drop 4% to 10.6 million hectolitres.
In the South East including Provence, production is seen falling 12% to 4.42 million hectolitres, while the volume of wine from Alsace is estimated to fall 13% to 914,000 hectolitres. Among France’s smaller growing areas, growers in the Jura were particularly hard hit, with a severe frost and mildew cutting production by 71% to 35,000 hectolitres.
