FRANCE: Burgundy reports near-record wine harvest

Burgundy wines may face greater price pressure after the region's wine trade body revealed that 2009 saw the second biggest harvest on record.

Burgundy's 2009 harvest produced 1.58m hl of wine, falling just short of the 1.6m record set in 1999, but well above the 1.45m hl produced in 2008, according to trade body, the Bureau Interprofessionnel des Vins de Bourgogne (BIVB).

Last year’s bumper crop was largely due to the absence of frost and hailstones.

However, with demand soft, particularly on the export front, it raises the prospect of downward pressure on prices.

“While it’s perhaps not the best time for a sizeable harvest to come along, no one is ever going to say to no to a high quality vintage in plentiful quantity and it may well play a role in the market  recovering,” a BIVB spokesperson told just-drinks today (19 March).