(Wine-Searcher) - Producers are reaching for the bubbles over a cracking vintage.

Halfway through harvest in the Champagne region, chef de caves, winegrowers and even the new general director of the Comité Champagne (CIVC), Vincent Perrin, are all pretty happy.

It is Perrin’s first harvest as CIVC director and he shared his experience with Wine-Searcher: "What strikes me the most is how serene this harvest has been up till now, even if the grapes ripened faster than we originally expected. I feel this is because most growers had closely monitored the sugar levels in the grapes which made it easier to determine the best starting dates."

The harvest started officially on the 28th of August in Montgueux in the Aube, even if a few people requested special permission to start on the 26th. The hot summer weather saw the grapes ripen quickly at the end of August and there was some fear that the acidity levels would plunge. However, neither Emmanuel Lassaigne, a wine grower in Montgueux who started harvesting on September 3rd, or Cyril Brun, cellar master at Charles Heidsieck, were worried about the acidity levels.

Brun explains: "The harvest is looking very promising, the grapes are ripe, and the pH is quite low." He adds that "it is too soon to judge the quality of the year just yet, but I see some similarities with 2009."

In the Marne, the picking started on the 4th, and also here some growers asked for a derogation to start earlier. Jean-Baptiste Geoffroy, a grower in Cumières, started picking a few vineyards affected with fanleaf a few days earlier.

"The yields in the vineyards were very low which meant the grapes ripened very quickly and had an average alcohol content exceeding 11 percent," says Geoffroy. 11 percent is often seen as the ideal maximum for Champagne base wine.

Low yields and higher potential alcohol levels are quite common especially in the Pinot grapes on the banks of the Marne river between Mareuil sur Aÿ and Damery. Charles Philipponnat saw very small yields in his Clos des Goisses and explains why: "The cooler weather during June caused coulure during flowering, resulting in fewer and smaller grape bunches. The warm summer allowed these grapes to attain full ripeness resulting in more concentrated flavors and higher potential alcohol percentages; the average for the Clos des Goisses was just under 11 percent."

However, the lower yields have caused some grape growers to worry. Philippe Brun, a grower and press center owner in Aÿ, speaks about a potential financial backlash for some growers with yields lower than 10,000kg per hectare, the appellation maximum for this year.

"When people have fewer grapes the quarterly pay-outs will be significantly smaller in the first 6 months as the wines they may draw out of their individual reserves will not be paid till June; this will cause stress on the cashflow," says Brun.

Perrin is less worried about this, as he believes the Champagne appellation is strong enough to solve these issues by guaranteeing continuous sales. "We noticed indeed that the yields are a little lower than we anticipated. This is mainly due to the smaller bunches of grapes. However, the Individual Reserve system allows us to maintain our market position as anticipated."

Dominique Demarville, cellar master for Veuve Clicquot, is not worried about the yields. He believes Clicquot as a whole will attain the 10,000 per hectare platform. "The quantity is not a problem, even if we have fewer grapes than the previous years", he says.

If some people have been worried about the quantity, everybody agrees that most of the grapes on the presses are of outstanding quality even if earlier in the summer there had been a lot of talk of oidium. It finally seems the problem is  a lot smaller than anticipated. Demarville elaborates: "The growers really took responsibility, first in June by treating so the disease did not overtake the vineyards, and secondly now during harvest, by not harvesting the affected grapes."

He adds: "2015 is an exceptional harvest; we have hardly any rot and a great balance between the sugar and acidity levels."

Hermine De Clermont Tonnerre, assistant cellar master at Gosset, agrees with Demarville but she adds that "There is a big difference in the juice Gosset receives from people who have worked the soil or not."

Jean-Baptiste Lecaillon, cellar master at Roederer, also touched on this subject. "The dry spring followed by the hot summer really impacted the vines. Vineyards where herbicides had been replaced by a mechanical working of the soil fared a lot better than more conventional ones."