French wine production in 2023 will be close to the average of the last five years, with favorable prospects in Champagne and Burgundy that will contrast with those of Bordeaux, affected by the disease, according to the French Ministry of Agriculture.
Total wine production is expected to be between 44 and 47 million hectoliters, a range that encompasses both the five-year average of 44.5 million hectoliters and 2022 production of 46.1 million hectoliters, the ministry said in a report published on Tuesday.
One hectoliter is equal to 100 liters or 133 standard bottles of wine.
Frequent stormy showers and the heat of May and June created favorable conditions for downy mildew in the Bordeaux and South West wine regions, so production forecasts are provisional for those areas, according to the ministry.
“We have never been in a situation with so much uncertainty and contrasts”, said Jerome Despey, a producer from the south of France and president of the wine committee of the FranceAgriMer agricultural office.
The harvest is expected to return to its usual schedule, after last year’s advance, so harvest prospects will not become clearer until the harvest is in full swing from the end of August.
Losses due to diseases could aggravate the difficulties of Bordeaux producers.
Falling demand for red wines, out of fashion among younger consumers, prompted the government to offer aid to producers this year.
The wine sector wants the government to expand funding for a distillation plan to be able to liquidate 3 million hectoliters of wine stocks, mainly in Bordeaux and Languedoc-Roussillon in the far south, Despey said.
In the south, drought is expected to reduce production in the Languedoc-Roussillon region.
However, the situation was favorable in the rest of the country, where the growth of the grapes was favored by an ideal climate during the flowering period and by early summer rains.
Production was above the five-year average in Champagne, where frost and hail caused limited damage this year, and also in Burgundy, despite some cases of downy mildew, the ministry added.
Source: Reuters
Source: Gestion
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