La Montre est Bonne

Delphine Brulez of Louise Brison in the Aube.

My new French phrase for my first week in Champagne is “la montre est bonne,” an expression that means “everything looks good right now” for a good vintage in 2022. After the disastrously low yields of 2021, the generous set on the vines now is a site for sore eyes. The vineyards in Champagne are far ahead of schedule, with flowering happening as I type in many places, and the flowers are already here in Sacy, where I took the picture below. A big harvest would do a lot to stabilize Champagne, because currently stocks are low due to a big increase in global demand, the horribly short 2021 harvest, and the self-inflicted wound of tight yield limits in 2020.

Sacy’s Chardonnay vines are already flowering as of May 20th.

Looking through my notes from the past week, I see producers who lost two-thirds of their crop in 2021—60%, 95%, 50%, and even the entire vintage. They had a big spring frost, followed by catastrophic storms that caused a plague of mildew last year. I even heard reports of mildew outbreaks that were so bad that they got into the vines themselves, limiting the crop for this year as well. The Côte de Blancs was spared the worst of the damage, which is good news for consistent supply with Bonville, Damien Hugot, and Launois for all of us.  

Hughes Poret of Duménil in Sacy on the Montagne de Reims.

As for demand, I thank you for drinking a lot of Champagne—and the world is joining you in enjoying it. One of my friends is working right now (on a Sunday no less!) preparing an order because he can’t keep up during the week. Asia, Europe, and we here in the U.S.A. are all doubling orders with producers and forcing them to say no to new customers, while setting up allocations for existing ones. It is a good thing to be here now to ask for bottle in person!

Paul Fallet of Fallet-Dart in the Clos du Mont vineyard in the far west of Champagne.

The last part that makes me cross my fingers that the harvest in 2022 will in fact be big is the strange call in 2022 by the Comité Champagne to only allow one-third or two-thirds of the crop that was on the vine to be harvested. They were betting on a downturn and wanted to keep prices stable and sent tons of good crop straight to the distillery. For now, the price increases I am seeing from the producers I deal with directly only reflect the inflation that the whole world has felt, plus our own drastic increase in shipping costs. Much of this has been offset by a strong dollar. Unfortunately, many nationally imported brands are adding a lot more than just these costs to their prices… But we will always have some direct-import Champagne for you to drink at a fair price!

A toast to you!

- Gary Westby, Champagne Buyer