Nearly 10% of Champagne vineyards are organic

We are delighted with the development of the organic industry in Champagne”, claimed Jérôme Bourgeois, chairman of the organic Champagne association ACB at its AGM on 16 February. “When I started out in 2009, organic vineyards accounted for 1% of acreage. Now we’re about to reach the 10% mark!” Although the 2021 harvest, which was decimated by mildew, led 19 growers to back track on their conversion, the overall trend remains positive. In 2023, the Champagne industry boasted 649 organic growers farming 2,700 hectares of vines.

“Due to recent conversions, there will be a lot of organic Champagnes for sale in 2024”, stressed Bourgeois. “We are going to continue our promotional activities with the Bulles Bio exhibition due to take place on April 14 in Reims which attracts a lot of buyers. It’s an exhibition where newly-converted producers can get their wines out in front of an audience”. The association hosts one exhibition abroad every other year. After Tokyo in October 2023, Brussels could well be the next destination in 2025. Research by the Néoma business school confirms that organic wines achieve good price points, with an average price of €28.92 + tax in export markets. Italy is the leading export market for organic Champagnes, followed by the USA and Japan.

The association not only provides support for growing sales of organic Champagne, it also showcases its production methods by hosting open-days for organic vine growing and technical seminars and aims to influence the decision to make the Champagne industry weed killer-free. On the issue, Bourgeois is disappointed that the open column published in national newspaper Le Monde on 7 December 2022 “went unheeded. It was a huge disappointment considering the prestige of our appellation and with regard to other French wine regions that are doing a lot better than we are”.