From vine to cellar: what really happens during harvest in Champagne
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A day in the Life of a Grape Philippe Dechelle CHARDONNAY from Adam ADYA on Vimeo
There are a few weeks each year when everything accelerates. Harvest in Champagne is the shortest and most intense moment of the entire growing season. A few days, sometimes two weeks, to gather what the vine has spent twelve months building.
Here's what actually happens — from the grape picked in our vines to the press house.
Why harvest in Champagne is different
In Champagne, harvesting by machine is not permitted. Every bunch is cut by hand and placed carefully into a small crate. It's an appellation rule, but more than that, it's a necessity: the grape must arrive at the press house whole, uncrushed, without premature oxidation.
Why does it matter? Because in Champagne, the goal is to extract only the purest juice, from the heart of the grape. Any excessive pressure on the skin before pressing can alter the juice and shift the aromatic profile of the wine in ways that can't be corrected later.
In our plots in the Vallée de la Marne, we work with a team that knows each parcel. Every bunch is checked before it's cut. What isn't ready stays on the vine. We don't harvest to fill crates.
A grape's journey, step by step
The bunch is cut by hand. It goes into a small, never overfilled crate. Those crates move quickly to the press house, a few minutes from the vines. That proximity is intentional: the longer the grape waits, the greater the risk of oxidation.
At the press, whole bunches are pressed gently using traditional champenois method. Pressure increases gradually, in stages. Only the first pressings, known as the cuvée, are kept for our champagnes. This is the finest, most delicate juice, the part that will give the complexity and minerality we're looking for.
The rest is set aside. No compromise there.
What the video shows
The film accompanying this article follows that exact journey. From the grape still hanging on the vine to the moment it enters the vat, you see every step as it actually happens at our estate in Brasles.
No staging. Harvest as it is.
Why this moment shapes everything that follows
Everything that happens during harvest determines what will be in your glass two, five, sometimes ten years later. A grape poorly picked, pressed too late or too hard, will never produce a great champagne regardless of what happens in the cellar afterward.
That's why harvest at Champagne Philippe Dechelle isn't a moment of rushing. It's where everything is decided.
Patience starts here, long before the years on lees begin.