Hail hits Champagne, Mendoza considers mining, France's new export scheme

Hi everyone, this is Sam with the wine news in 5. Before I get to the news, I just want to remind you that our writing competition is up and running. If you’ve ever felt like writing an ode to a grape variety, please do so, and submit your entry!

Hail hits Champagne

On 3 May hail hit Champagne affecting between 500 and 1,000 hectares (around 1,250–2,500 acres) of vineyard mostly in the municipalities of St-Martin-d’Ablois, Vinay, Pierry and Épernay, with some damage in the northern part of the Côte des Blancs. Damage is variable with producers reporting losses of up to 80% in the most heavily impacted areas. Broken shoots and damaged inflorescences (the flower heads that will turn into grapes) will result in a smaller crop this year but there is no way of knowing how much smaller. Some producers are hopeful that vines will push secondary buds.

While this is bad news for Champagne, it is important to keep in mind that hail is localised and variable. While the worst-affected areas on 3 May saw hailstones the size of eggs, most of the Marne Valley, Aisne and the Montagne de Reims saw no damage whatsoever.

Duckhorn Portfolio shutters multiple brands

On 6 May The Duckhorn Portfolio announced that they were reallocating ‘the resources’ previously dedicated to Canvasback, Migration, Paraduxx and Postmark’ to their core brands of Duckhorn Vineyards, Kosta Browne, Decoy and Sonoma-Cutrer, along with Goldeneye, Calera and Greenwing. In essence, they’re closing down operations for four brands. They are also closing the tasting room for Sonoma-Cutrer.

Trying to follow what’s happening to The Duckhorn Portfolio in the last few years is giving me whiplash. In 2023 they acquired Sonoma-Cutrer from Brown-Forman, then, last year, after undergoing a serious sales slump, they were acquired by Butterfly Equity. Two months ago, there were rumours that they were acquiring part of Constellation’s portfolio – which now seems very unlikely given that this week they announce they’re closing brands. Where will they be six months from now?

Mendoza turns to mining

As Amanda Barnes, our Mendoza-based correspondent points out, this piece of news has been brewing for a long time.

In December 2023 Argentina inaugurated a new president, Javier Milei. One of the platforms he ran on was stabilising the economy and decreasing inflation. When he took office in December 2023 inflation in Argentina was in excess of 25% a month – a year later it was 2.2% a month. Part of Milei’s strategy is to lift regulations that were placed on industry in order to strengthen the economy. And one of the things that has been heavily regulated since the early 2000s is mining. Up until now, Mendoza, which sits on sizable copper reserves from the copper-rich Andes, has relied on wine as its top export product.

But the wine industry is suffering and Mendoza’s governor, Alfredo Cornejo, elected in September 2023, campaigned on creating mining jobs. Last year he reformed the Mining Procedure Code and created Malargüe Western Mining District (MDMO), which is an area in southern Mendoza where they’ve streamlined exploration projects. According to an article that the Financial Times ran this week, six projects that are in the pipeline have the potential to make Argentina into one of the top 10 producers of copper in the world by 2031 despite producing almost no copper right now. One of these, PSJ Cobre Mendocino, co-owned by Switzerland’s Zonda Metals and Argentina’s Alberdi Group, aims to start production by 2028.

Mining, a water-intensive industry, will be in direct competition with winemaking for water. Cornejo has promised strict water monitoring. The FT quoted the head of Argentina’s wine chamber as saying that as long as water use and quality are monitored, the wine industry doesn’t have a problem with it.

If I’m honest, the idealist in me hates that part of the answer to economic turmoil is mining. But it would be incredibly unfair to judge Argentina for taking advantage of their natural resources – especially when you consider how much neighbouring Chile has benefited from being the number-one producer of copper worldwide.

New French wine export scheme

On 8 May the European Commission approved a five-billion-euro scheme to assist France in insuring themselves against political volatility while they attempt to expedite shipping wine to the US ahead of 9 July – the date that Trump’s ‘reciprocal tariff’ of 10% will increase the EU’s overall tariff rate to 20%. This approval was granted on the same day that the EU Commission laid out a plan to impose tariffs on 95 billion euros of US goods if they cannot reach a resolution with the Trump administration.

Bordeaux en primeur 2024 update

You can check our forum for a more robust breakdown but I wanted to highlight that 6 May was the largest day for en primeur releases thus far and Château Cheval Blanc cut prices by 29.5% compared with 2023 – making 2024 their lowest EP price in over a decade!

That’s all for this episode of the wine news. If you enjoy this newscast and would like to see it continue, please subscribe to JancisRobinson.com. And if you have breaking news in your area, please email news@jancisrobinson.com.

This is a transcript of our weekly five-minute news broadcast, which you can watch below. You can also listen to it on The Wine News in 5 Podcast. If you enjoy this content and would like to see more like it, please subscribe to our site and our weekly newsletter.

Photo at top courtesy of Château Cheval Blanc.

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Samantha Cole-Johnson