Samples are taken by 500 vignerons in 450 different plots across the length and breadth of Champagne and the results are fed back to the Comité Champagne ( formerly known as the CIVC) who collect the data and, in due course, announce the start dates for the harvest.
The Réseau Matu system was started in 1950 but really only gained acceptance in 1987. Since then it has become an indispensable tool in preparing for the harvest each year.
Here’s a picture of the information recorded by one particular team (You may need to enlarge the picture but I think the definition is just about good enough to read). You will see that, although simple, it is thorough and quite detailed. Samples are taken from a variety of plots in a village, or perhaps in a few villages, whether they belong to one of the famous big houses, or to a small-scale champagne maker. They all depend on this vital information.
In the two left-hand columns you can see 1) the name of the person/brand that owns the plot where a sample was taken and 2) the name of the plot.
Across the top of the chat you’ll see that they measure and record the name of the village (cru) represented by initials, the grape varietal ( only PN and CH in this particular village) and then
- The number of bunches per vine
- The weight of the bunch
- The average weight per grape
and more data including the temperature, the level of acidity in the juice and – in the right-hand column - the potential alcohol (sugar) in the juice. You can see, at the foot of the page that, when this sample was taken just a couple of days ago, the average potential alcohol was just 5.5 for the Pinot Noir and 4.3 for the Chardonnay.
Normally the vignerons will be looking for at least 10 degrees potential alcohol before they start picking so you can tell that there is still a long way to go until the grapes are fully ripe.
As far as the weather is concerned there was lots of steady ran over last couple of days and since then things have cooled down considerably to a normal summer temperature, so that’s all good news for the vineyards.
I’ll let you have more updates as we go into the final half of August.
