2026-09-03
Champagne growers and producers are asking French regulators to temporarily raise a key alcohol limit that now restricts how some of the 2026 harvest can be bottled, after an unusually warm growing season pushed grape ripeness to high levels across the region.
The request, made to France’s Institut National de l’Origine et de la Qualité, or INAO, seeks to lift the current 13% ceiling that applies to Champagne after the second fermentation in bottle and allow bottling up to 15%, the maximum permitted under European rules for non-fortified wine. The proposed change has not been approved and is not yet in force. A decision is expected on Sept. 8.
The issue comes as the 2026 harvest in Champagne has advanced unusually early because of heat, with grape maturity rising to levels that are creating practical and commercial questions for producers. According to WineNews, citing reporting by the French publication Vitisphere, some houses are already separating musts with more than 13% potential alcohol and considering whether those wines should be diverted away from sparkling Champagne and into still wines sold under the Coteaux Champenois appellation.
That would mark a notable shift in a region overwhelmingly identified with sparkling wine. Coteaux Champenois remains a small and complementary category in Champagne, but the warm conditions of the 2026 vintage are prompting some producers to consider a larger use of that outlet for grapes that may no longer fit the profile expected for their sparkling blends.
Odilon de Varine, cellar master at Gosset in Epernay, told Vitisphere that the decision at his house was “90%” made, perhaps more, to separate musts with potential alcohol above 13% and taste them after fermentation before deciding their final use. He said those wines could prove too far from the freshness and minerality the house seeks for its non-vintage Brut Sans Année Champagnes and could therefore be directed toward Coteaux Champenois instead.
According to the report, Gosset has already adjusted its cellar work in anticipation of that possibility, increasing extraction for reds and intensifying bâtonnage for whites in order to produce high-quality still wines if needed. The report said the house is not alone in considering that option.
Maxime Toubart, president of the Syndicat Général des Vignerons de la Champagne, the region’s main growers’ organization, also described 2026 as a year especially favorable for making Coteaux Champenois. He said grape quality offers the chance to make still wines at a high level, while making clear that this category is not expected to overtake or fundamentally challenge the central role of sparkling Champagne in the region.
The growers’ request to the INAO is aimed at avoiding that kind of reallocation when producers still want to bottle the harvest as Champagne. Toubart said the goal is to remove a restriction that blocks bottling wines above 13% alcohol after the in-bottle refermentation and align the appellation with the broader European rule that allows up to 15% for wines that have not been enriched. He said the change would help producers that cannot balance the 2026 wines with reserve wines from earlier years, or that want to make vintage Blanc de Blancs, and might otherwise find themselves unable to proceed.
At stake is not just a technical rule but how the region manages a hot vintage without forcing growers and houses to downgrade or redirect fruit from their highest-value product. If the exemption is denied, more grapes that under normal conditions would go into sparkling Champagne could instead end up in still wines, altering the commercial mix of the 2026 crop even if only at the margins.
The debate also reflects a broader pressure on Champagne from repeated warm seasons. Heat can speed up harvest dates and raise sugar levels in grapes, which in turn increases potential alcohol. For sparkling wine producers, that can create tension with the style they are trying to preserve, especially in wines built around tension, acidity and blending flexibility. In years of very high ripeness, the traditional model can become harder to maintain within existing appellation rules.
No figures have been published for how much fruit could switch categories if the request is not granted, and no estimates have been given for volumes, prices or the share of the crop that might be affected. For now, the market is waiting on the regulator’s decision, while producers continue harvest and assess whether the most mature lots can still be used for Champagne or are better suited to Coteaux Champenois.