Champagne harvest 2022: Year of well-liked extremes
The great team in action in the last plot, the last lines, the last day, the last gorgeous Chardonnays in les Crochettes, Soulières, planted in 1964.
We took les vendanges to the end with a good toast at Champagne Tange-Gérard in Soulières on September 9th. If some still had arms that hurt, the explanation could be linked with the 46 tons of grapes that were picked by the incredibly motivated team in just 8 days. During this time, we also celebrated the secret weapon of how to survive the harvest week: our very appreciated cook Annie who experienced her first grape harvest in Soulières back in 1972. That’s right: 50 years jubilee. Equally for the first time we work on a Pinot Meunier plot champagne. Hopefully, there’s something to make you – and us – look forward.
The season: 2022 is our second year of organic conversion. The growth season this year has been close to a bed of roses and with no thorns. Ok, it did freeze in April – and thank you again for your caring comments around this time – the vines were back in business pretty fast. Later, in June, fantastic weather during the flowering helped create the gorgeous clusters, that were noticed by so many of you who came to visit us all summer.
From June and into the first days of the grape harvest we experienced extremely warm temperatures. We still have not met anyone who remembers a warmer summer in Champagne. This has left traces in ways we have not experienced before. In some plots, several vines did not find enough water to keep all its branches sufficiently, and some old branches withered and died for the remaining parts of the plant to survive. These branches carry the grapes so they are needed in the process of pruning. This challenge is due to lack of rain, and we will work with it this autumn.
Some pretty Pinot Meunier clusters from the low plot in Loisy-en-Brie. They will be used for a single plot champagne for the first time ever. The grapes were picked on September 4th.
The grape harvest: The complexity of access to water is illustrated by the fact that the grapes themselves were bigger than we have seen for years. They clearly did not lack water but were able to absorb what they needed when it rained and in the finest interaction with the sun. This is needed so the fruit will taste more than water, sugar, and acidity.
The dry summer also meant a complete absence of dawny and powdery mildew and grey rots, diseases that have often threatened our yields. We could pick exceptionally healthy grapes for our champagnes and to refill our indispensable, individual reserve, that we can use in difficult years. In total we picked 46 tons which came close to double our yields in 2021. The black Pinots and the white Chardonnays both came in well when it comes to the maturity, that we aim at for our plot champagnes: a density with a po-tential level of alcohol of 11% after the first fermentation. We choose to work with Pinot Meunier this time.
The vinification: This must is now on its way towards the stars. We picked the grapes on September 4th, they were pressed on September 5th and are reaching the end of the first alcoholic fermentation. We will soon have a very young wine to taste and look forward to decide, how to proceed. Maybe with a passage through oak. The other musts of the harvest are equally on their way. The first months their taste is very unstable. Therefore, we cannot be very specific about our first impressions of their quality before some time has passed. Obviously, we will keep you updated via social media. But you will have to wait some years before the first Pinot Meunier single leaves the cave.
In our shelves: In the meantime you don’t need to wait with your empty glass. We will present the new 2017 vintage of Solliphere in the autumn. And the 2014 vintage is still available as well as Solliage from 2013 and Sollissime from 2015 with the classic non vintages of Tradition and Noirs & Blancs, the pink Rosé d’Assemblage and Rosé de Saignée as well as Blanc de Blancs 2016 and Selection 2012.
We believe that they are all fantastic to celebrate the very special days, yours and ours. Or to let any ordinary day rise to the skies with a whoosh and bubbles in your glass. Just because we like to. Just now and then. We look forward to hearing from you.
Harvestgreetings from Alain Gérard & Solveig Tange,
Soulières, September 2022
The extended team on sunday September 4th with core team, weekend extras, visitors and kids.