Text: Essi Avellan
Photos: Michaël Boudot
The 2026 harvest that has just been received in the cellars, will go down as Champagne’s earliest and hottest harvest on record, and the first ever to both begin and end in August. It was marked by unprecedented levels of ripeness and perhaps offers a glimpse of the new normal that lies ahead. Louis Roederer’s chef de cave, Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon, aptly described the vintage as “exceptional” in both senses of the word expressing optimism about the quality of the wines it may yield as well as acknowledging the extraordinary conditions.
The weather
The 2026 growing season will be remembered as one of the most testing in Champagne’s recent history, a season of extraordinary contrasts that repeatedly pushed both vines and growers beyond familiar territory. What began with an unusually warm and wet winter quickly developed into a race through the vine’s cycle, interrupted by devastating frost and followed by heat and drought of exceptional intensity.
Winter had already set the tone. Across France, temperatures averaged around 1.7°C above normal, making it the fourth-warmest winter since 1900. February was even more remarkable: some 3.5°C above average, it was the second-warmest February on record, while rainfall exceeded twice the seasonal norm nationally. The soils therefore entered spring with generous water reserves. Yet the warmth had its price. The vines woke early, and phenological development accelerated to roughly three weeks ahead of the norm.
Then came the frost. Champagne was hit by successive episodes around 15 March, 26 March and 1–2 April, at a stage when the vines were already dangerously advanced. Temperatures plunged and the damage was severe. The Comité Champagne estimated that close to 40% of primary buds were lost, making 2026 the second most damaging spring-frost year on record, behind only 2003.
April brought an abrupt reversal. After the abundant winter rainfall, it was exceptionally dry; the Comité Champagne described it as the driest April on record. Temperatures remained relatively restrained for much of the month, but a sudden surge on 9–10 April pushed them above 25°C. The season was beginning to acquire its defining characteristic: extremes arriving in rapid succession.
By late spring, the pace accelerated again. A series of heat episodes culminated in an exceptional June, with the most intense heat coinciding with fruit set and the earliest stages of berry development. On 24 June, France experienced its hottest day nationally since records began, with a national mean temperature of around 30°C and local maxima above 43°C.
Summer then became increasingly defined by heat and water deficit. Three major heatwaves swept across France between May and July, while rainfall remained insufficient to replenish the reserves the vines were rapidly consuming. By July, drought was firmly established. The final heat episode, in August, coincided with the approach of the earliest harvest in Champagne’s recorded history. Under the intense heat and water stress, berries began to shrivel, reducing an already diminished crop while concentrating sugars and accelerating the race towards ripeness.