Before I get to global news, a bit of team news. On 23 July Jancis was named as a finalist for SommCon’s 2025 Imprint Awards which recognises lifetime impact through mentorship, leadership and service. The winner is chosen through a public vote – I’ll include the link to voting in the transcript of this newscast.
Crackdown on human trafficking in Champagne
As I discussed on this newscast at the end of last month, on 19 June, a case known as ‘the grape harvest of shame’ went on trial in Châlons-en-Champagne. This case concerned the trafficking and exploitation of 57 individuals in 2023 by a company called Anavim, which supplied labour to wineries in Champagne. Victims were housed in unsanitary conditions, fed rancid food, transported in vehicles with no seats or windows, and forced to work 13-hour days without breaks. On Monday 21 July, the judge ordered the dissolution of Anavim and sentenced the director to four years of prison time, two of which were suspended, as well as sentenced two recruiters to a year of prison each. All three were ordered to pay a fine of €4,000 per victim. The co-operative that had been using Anavim’s services was fined €75,000.
Champagne’s trade body, Comité Champagne, is calling for harsher punishments going forward, including downgrading the harvest in any area where trafficking is found to occur so that those involved in trafficking will be disqualified from using the Champagne appellation. General secretary Jose Blanco was quoted in The Drinks Business as saying, ‘You don’t play with the health and safety of seasonal workers. Nor are we playing with the image of our appellation.’
2025 Champagne harvest reductions
Quite separate from the trafficking case, on Wednesday 23 July the Comité Champagne announced that, despite what has been a very promising winegrowing season, they will limit yields to 9,000 kg/ha – the lowest limit since 2020 (when yields were set to 8,000 kg/ha due to a decline in demand during the early days of COVID). This is the result of negotiations between the co-presidents of the Comité Champagne – David Chatillon, who represents Champagne houses which buy fruit, and Maxime Toubart, who represents winegrowers.
I think that decreasing yield limits because sales have declined and a region is doing their best to avoid oversupply and keep prices stable is a responsible move!
Hail in Sancerre and the Gard
Thank you to news listener and Sancerre lover Julio Patino for tipping me off about hail in Sancerre. Outreach to the Bureau Interprofessionnel des Vins du Centre Loire and to Charles Sydney Wines, a UK importer specialising in the Loire, yielded the information that the storm struck on 23 July at around 6 pm beginning on the outskirts of Menetou-Salon, where it did minor damage near the commune of Parassy before heading north-east. It intensified as it reached Sury-en-Vaux, causing losses of 80% in some areas. It then crossed the Loire to Cosne-sur-Loire and damaged around 60 hectares in the Coteaux du Giennois – with some experiencing up to 50% losses. In total, the storm has damaged around 550 hectares (1,359 acres). Pouilly-Fumé, Reuilly, Quincy, the majority of Menetou-Salon and the broader Centre-Loire regions have been spared. If you’d like more information, I have dropped the full report from Charles Sydney Wines in our forum.
Hail also struck France’s Gard region on 21 July between 1.30 and 2 am affecting the Costières de Nîmes AOC. According to Vitisphere approximately 300 ha (740 acres, or around 10% of the appellation) were affected with losses of 10–50%.
Columbia Gorge fire
On Friday 18 July I was driving from Portland to Walla Walla and was on the Oregon side of the Columbia Gorge passing Lyle – just east of Hood River – at around 5.30 pm. The Washington side of the Columbia Gorge was covered in flames. Subsequently this fire has been named the Burdoin Fire. As of Thursday morning, it had burned 11,160 acres (4,516 ha) and was 13% contained. So far 131 structures have been destroyed. Two Columbia Gorge wineries have been affected. Baro Wine, whose first vintage was in 2023, have lost their winery building, cellar building, pumphouse and 3,000 cases of wine to the fire. Syncline Winery, established in 1999, lost a number of newly planted vines but the winery still stands. Syncline’s owner, James Mantone, is a volunteer firefighter and has been out with the fire crews for the last week. He told Michael Alberty of The Oregonian that he expects that Syncline has lost their entire vintage to smoke taint but that he has already had several growers reach out and offer their grapes to help get him through 2025. If you’d like to show your support for the Gorge, you can find Syncline’s wines in the UK through Ally Wines. In the US you can place orders directly with producers in the Columbia Gorge – just don’t expect them to get anything shipped out very quickly.
Barossa growers v luxury tourist development
Thank you to news listener Matthew McCulloch, managing director of Langmeil, for bringing this to my attention. He and other community members in Australia’s Barossa Valley have mounted a petition against a proposed 150-room IHG luxury hotel on 21 ha of rural land in Barossa. The land falls within the Barossa Character Preservation District and Significant Landscape Protection (SLP) Overlay, both designed to control development in the area, yet the developer, Strategic Alliance and Commercial Pty Ltd, skirted the Barossa Council, which oversees enforcement of the preservation measures, going instead to South Australia’s Minister of Planning, Nick Champion. As McCulloch pointed out in his note to me, ‘We support tourism development and investment in our region, and we recognise that well-planned, appropriately located projects can bring significant benefits, stimulating the local economy, providing jobs, and supporting Barossa's world-renowned visitor experience’. But, he adds, ‘Developments in appropriately zoned locations for large-scale tourist infrastructure can be accommodated without encroaching on protected rural land.’ The photo he sent shows that, though the project has not been fully approved, construction has begun, and a 1.16 ha block of 50-year-old Shiraz vines has already been grubbed up to make way for the project.
I’m linking to the petition in the transcript of this newscast in case you would like to add your signature.
RIP Angela Muir MW
I never had the pleasure of meeting Angela Muir but I know that Tara and Julia relied on her to update the Cyprus and Commandaria entries of The Oxford Companion to Wine and that her work was greatly appreciated. Before retiring to Cyprus, where she had worked as a wine consultant, Muir spent almost 50 years in the wine trade, 45 of them as a Master of Wine. Early in her career she worked for John Harvey and Sons, Grants of St James’s and Victoria Wine before starting Cellar World International with her husband. On the Institute of Masters of Wine website, fellow MWs, most of whom she mentored through their exams, have written remembrances of her describing her as tenacious, honest and cheerful, and saying that though she was a terrifying driver, she gave invariably good direction for both exams and for life.
That’s all for this episode of the wine news. If you enjoy this newscast and would like to see it continue, please become a member of JancisRobinson.com. And if you have breaking news in your area, please email [email protected].
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