Why champagne’s formula is changing for the first time in 90 years

In a decision that the French will not have taken lightly, the grapes from which champagne can be made are changing for the first time in nearly 90 years.
Since the 1930s, a bottle of champagne has been allowed by law to contain seven grape varieties — chardonnay, pinot noir, pinot meunier, and the rarer arbane, petit meslier, pinot blanc and pinot gris.
An eighth has now been added to the list. Called voltis, it is one of a new generation of hybrid vines, developed to resist fungal diseases that threaten to hit wine production around the world as the climate changes.
Hugo Drappier’s family have been making champagne in Urville in central France for more than 200 years and their company, Maison Drappier, is the first producer in the region to grow all eight permissible varieties. He sees his voltis vines, planted last year, as a rare but necessary experiment. “It’s a first step into the future,” he said.
His grandfather harvested grapes from the estate in October but warmer temperatures mean that the fruit now loads up with sugar more quickly. So Drappier picks in late August. Harvesting earlier in the year increases the risk that the grapes will not have developed the aromatic compounds that give champagne its complexity.
But dealing with extreme weather has been more of a problem. “Climate change has brought higher temperatures, but also this year excessive rain,” he said. More moisture increases the risk of diseases such as mildew and botrytis, which can devastate a harvest. Voltis has been developed to resist these fungal pests.
“The champagne we make in the future will not be the same as we’re making today,” he said.
Dr Alistair Nesbitt, who studies how climate affects wine, said we should expect to see more new grapes appearing in supermarket aisles. According to the International Organisation of Vine and Wine, global wine production hit a 60-year low in 2023, largely due to extreme weather events, many made worse by climate change. Italy fell from its position as the world’s leading wine maker, partly because of downy mildew triggered by unseasonal rains, as well as floods, hailstorms and drought.
This week Tesco became the first large retailer in the UK to sell a white wine made from the floreal grape variety — another new hybrid developed to withstand fungal pests. The supermarket claims that its natural resistance can lead to an 80 to 90 per cent reduction in the need for chemical sprays, decreasing tractor use, CO2 emissions, and soil compaction.
“Customers who enjoy a sauvignon blanc but want to try something different will likely enjoy the flavour,” said Charlotte Lemoine, product development manager at Tesco.
Professor Stéphanie Marchand-Marion, a wine expert at the University of Bordeaux, said that floreal was passable. “It can be used for the common wine, the wine you buy just to drink during the week – but not for the very important moments of life,” she said.
Back in Urville, the verdict is out. The voltis vines have not been treated with fungicides, yet there has been no sign of mildew. The first harvest is expected next year and it will be 2027 before a very young champagne is ready to drink, with the rules saying that if it is to be sold commercially, it can contain a maximum of 10 per cent of the new variety.
“The resistance to disease is incredible,” said Drappier. “Now we just have to see how it tastes.”
As climate change bites, with as much as 85 per cent of the world’s vineyards thought to be under threat, winemakers are urgently seeking solutions (Jane MacQuitty writes).
Harvesting earlier, planting grapes at higher, cooler altitudes and shading vines from the sun by managing canopies, all help to combat climate change. Naysayers need to note that grape harvests are starting earlier and earlier everywhere, leading to shorter hang times and producing riper, sweeter, more alcoholic wines.
It’s not just the planet heating up that’s the rub. Unpredictable, extreme cold weather conditions, with torrential rain, hail and frost, are just as problematic. Viticulturists are fighting back though by planting drought and disease-resistant rootstocks and now hybrid vines.
Encouragingly, UK drinkers are about to discover a run of disease-resistant hybrid grapes with unfamiliar names that can better cope with the rot, oidium and mildew of damp, humid growing seasons. The hybrid pioneer Jean-Claude Mas, of the award-winning Les Domaines Paul Mas, has spent a decade trialing disease-resistant hybrids, and a few are already on sale here. The latter are European vitis vinifera vines crossed with American vines.
The likes of floreal, muscaris, prior and souvignier gris planted by Jean-Claude Mas in Languedoc are not familiar to UK drinkers now but hopefully soon will be. In particular, there are high hopes for shy, citrusy Floreal planted in Languedoc and Loire in 2018, a hybrid white of Villaris and a descendant of Muscadinia Rotundifolia. Judge for yourself with Tesco’s pleasant but not very exciting, light, spritzy, lemon zest, 11 per cent alcohol 2023 Finest Floreal, £8, a humble Vin de France from Les Grands Chais de France, launched this week. It’s not going to thrill connoisseurs but it’s a start.