The Secondés of Champagne Barnaut report that the 2010 Champagne had been marked by bad weather before (from the 15th of August, since when it has rained continuously) and by rot which was more or less serious in different parcels. They had to adapt to the conditions, get organised, and mobilise all the pickers, sorters and press crews to make sure that the grapes were as clean as possible. A lot of grapes were discarded in the vineyard to make sure that only the best quality arrived at the presses. The juices have an average alcohol potential of 10-11%, which is sufficient to allow the wines to be worked correctly.
We also spoke to Francis Egly who declared that it would be ‘a year for the vigneron’. It seems likely that there will be some fairly poor quality grapes amongst those growers who sell their produce off the vine and are more fixed on quantity than on the quality of the resultant wine.