(TDB) - Growers may have “overreacted” to the challenges of this year’s vintage in Champagne because they are used to “easy harvests”, according to Moët & Chandon cellar master Benoît Gouez.

As previously reported by the drinks business, although the 2017 vintage in Champagne started well, with hot and dry weather from May until late July (advancing budburst and blossoming), the month of August turned out to be warm and wet – conditions that favoured the incidence and rapid spread of botrytis in the bunches.

And it was the threat of rotten grapes that made it necessary to pick extremely quickly, as well as sort very carefully, with, for example, Bollinger cellar master Gilles Descôtes describing 2017 as “the most challenging vintage of my career”.

However, speaking to db on 26 October in London, Moët’s Gouez said that he thought the Champenois had forgotten how to handle a difficult vintage, following a long run of relatively straightforward harvests in Champagne, and, as a result, had been unnerved by conditions that were once common in the region.