Champagne is not the only wine region to set a record this year, as a warm spring accelerated the grapes' growth across Europe. Producers of Franciacorta sparkling wine from the Lombardy region in northern Italy even started their harvest in July. “An extraordinary event,” the Franciacorta consortium of winemakers called it.

Grape harvests as a climate archive

Wine harvests all over Europe have been starting progressively earlier, which according to climate historian Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie is a good indicator of climate change. He was among the first to use historical records to study past climates.

Just like the timing of ice-breaking in northern European ports or cherry blossom seasons in Japan, the start of the grape harvest is shaped both by nature's rythm and human decisions. Harvests have been documented and regulated for centuries, allowing historians to trace wine harvests back to the 14th century.

“Harvest opening declaration documents give us an idea of climate change, just like measuring the melting of a glacier does,” Thomas Labbé, specialist in the long-term study of wine harvests, told us.

Historical harvest records, combined with weather data, allow historians to reconstruct past climates – even before temperature measurements existed – and track how climate has changed over centuries. The findings also match other evidence of climate change: “Since the 1990s, the harvest dates have been getting earlier and earlier,” Labbé told us.

Weather whiplash

But the biggest challenge isn't just the hot summers, it's the increasingly unpredictable weather throughout the year. “We lost about fifty percent of our harvest during the late frost,” Marie-Pierre Charpentier, winemaker in the Champagne region, told us. “That is why we now have to adapt, to react swiftly to what we observe in our vineyards.” This year, for example, she pruned the vines less, leaving more leaves to shade the grapes from heat stress and sunburn.

While the grapes arrived unusually early, they are “looking fantastic this year, they weren't affected by diseases like mildew,” said Charpentier. This year's dry conditions likely helped, as mildew and fungi thrive in humidity.

Growing for a hotter future

Eva Plazas Torné is a winemaker at the Vilarnau winery located near Barcelona, in the Penedès wine region where the Spanish sparkling wine Cava is produced. For her, 2026 has been extremely challenging especially in terms of logistics.

The three grape varieties she produces used to ripen at different paces. “Today, they reach maturity at the same time, which reduces our time windows to harvest them,” she told us – that can create a real bottleneck when it comes to storing and processing these grapes.

To face the next heatwaves, Plazas Torné is calling for a complete reorganisation of the vineyards: “We may have to return to wider planting distances, we will also have to look more carefully at north-facing slopes, higher-altitude vineyards and sites that naturally retain more freshness.” These measures would reduce heat stress and ensure better water availability.

Choosing the right grape variety for each location is also another key part of adapting to a warmer climate. “It's not about finding one solution, but combining different strategies.”