France third largest Wine Country in 2024, How did it go this Year?
Italy, France, and Spain are usually the three largest wine producing countries in that order and for 2023 France was at the top of the podium but then fell to bronze last year. How did it go this year?
In Italy, the water reservoirs were filled during the winter so the harvest is expected to be a as much as 47 million hl while Spain has been hit by drought, heat waves, and leaf mold so the harvest there is only estimated to be 34 million hl.
In France, the initial forecasts were that the harvest would be around 40 million hl but with the drought and after the heat wave in August, the estimated volume is now historically low, only 36.04 million hl. Despite that, France is moving up from bronze to silver for 2025.
Several of the major wine-producing regions have had a lower harvest than last year, which is pulling down the average for France, such as Alsace, Bordeaux, Languedoc-Roussillon, Provence, and the Southwest. Part of the decrease in Bordeaux and Languedoc-Roussillon is also due to the wine crisis where vines are being uprooted. On the other hand, others have increased their production, such as Burgundy, Champagne, Jura, Loire, and Savoie.
The Wine Year in Provence
The Precipitation
Provence had two dry years in 2022 and 2023, with 2022 being extremely dry. The precipitation for the 2024 season was 20% above normal, so it can be considered a relatively rainy year, if you look at the annual average. The 2025 season is like the previous year with 41% higher annual precipitation, but it is important that it comes at the right times!
The beginning of the year was wet and what really made it was the heavy rains on May 20th, the worst affected area in Provence received up to 230 mm of rain in just one hour! The heavy rains flooded the already waterlogged vineyards and led to landslides, making the vineyards impossible to reach with tools and machinery.
The wet start to the year unfortunately meant that the powdery mildew pressure was high and even before the heavy rains in May, some winegrowers had been forced to spray the vines five times!
Then with the May rain, more and urgent treatments were needed. The winegrowers were therefore very happy when the government approved spraying with the help of drones for the first time in France the weekend after the disaster. The joy was short-lived, however, as the approval only approved a certain Bordeaux liquid for application from the air and it was not available at short notice.
The summer months of June, July and August had virtually no rainfall, a total of only 8 mm compared to the “normal” 110 mm in my “reference town” Le Luc, which is in the middle of the Var department. The rain came instead in September with 25 mm in the first 4 days and a full 63 mm three weeks into the month, i.e. during the middle and end of the sensitive harvest period.
In addition to the risk that the moisture will reduce the quality of the grapes and the size of the harvest, it will be considerably more difficult to work in the vineyard. The ground in Provence is like concrete during the dry summer months, but during a wet autumn it becomes a real mud slurry that soaks boots and makes it difficult to use a tractor. For this reason, in some vineyards you can see that they keep the vegetation between every other row so that there is a “walk” to get around.
I usually use the St Cassien water reservoir northwest of Cannes as a reference. Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture for 2025 yet, but the levels were “all-time high” and were about a meter above those during the wet 2024.
The Temperature
The trend continues from previous years, with every month of the year having average temperatures equal to or above normal. The positive thing is that there was no severe frost during the spring, which is so sensitive to the vine, but instead we had the heavy rains in May….
During the low-precipitation summer months of June, July, and August, it was also very hot, which led to drought. Already in June, there was a heat wave that lasted from mid-to-late June with maximum temperatures around 38 degrees. After a short heat wave in mid-July, there was a strong and long heat wave starting just before mid-August with maximum temperatures around 40 degrees! It was the latter that reduced harvest volumes by 10%!
The Harvest
The wine harvest in France started on the first of August in the Fitou wine region in Languedoc Roussillon, where the first Muscat grapes were harvested. The heat also meant that the harvest in Provence started early. It started on the 12th of August for vineyards in the parts of Côtes de Provence that are close to the Mediterranean Sea and in the “Permian Basin” and for Coteaux d’Aix-en-Provence for vineyards around the Étang de Berre lake. So, the harvest started at the same time as the heat wave in August began!
Harvesting in the afternoons should be avoided due to the heat, both in terms of the quality of the grapes and the health of the harvesters. So, an early start to the harvest as soon as it gets light is important, or harvesting mechanically starting before sunrise. Especially for the Provence signum, the light and fresh rosé wine, it is important to harvest before it gets too hot during the day to preserve the freshness of the grapes.
Despite the powdery mildew attacks in the spring, the vines were in good condition, thanks to the heat. The water stress was considered mild, thanks to the wet start of the year, at least before the difficult heat wave in August. With drought and heat waves, the grapes can start to shrivel and then it is urgent to harvest, once they shrivel, 20% of the harvest can be lost in two days!
Although it does not go so far that the grapes shrivel, the heat causes the sugar content to increase and the concentration in the grapes to increase rapidly, which produces less grape juice and accelerates the reduction of the acidity in the grapes and also a reduction of the anthocyanins, so both the freshness and the colour of the wine can be affected. According to consulting oenologist Arnaud Morand, ICP Provence, a distinctive feature of the vintage is that the ratio between malic acid and tartaric acid is unusual, with more malic acid than tartaric acid. Something that was probably adjusted during vinification to preserve the freshness and stability of the wines.
So, as always, it is important to harvest at the “perfect time”, i.e. early for rosé wines where you want the typical Provençal freshness and light colour, equally for the white wines and later for the red wines so that the so-called phenolic/skin ripeness has had time to be achieved.
The weather during the most important months of 2025 was quite similar to that of 2024, so the 2025 vintage is also considered to be a good vintage, probably with as usual a large variation between different areas depending on how the forces of the weather affected and the knowledge/ambition of the winegrower. For areas closer to the coast where the harvest started early, the quality should be more even, while for the more northern areas with a later harvest start, it was important to get the harvest in quickly during the heat wave and before the rains in September came.
For the white and rosé wines, freshness is often the most important thing and with a late harvest, freshness risks decreasing, which can be compensated for later in the vinification with the addition of, for example, tartaric acid, but it is best if this can be avoided as the acid then feels more integrated into the wine.
Especially for the red wines, with a later harvest start, it may have been a challenge to avoid overripe grapes with little grape juice. The red wines are predicted to be concentrated and generous.
Harvest Volume
For the 2023 harvest, the “Syndicat des Vins Côtes de Provence” decided that the harvest for rosé wine in Côtes de Provence would be reduced, the reason being that for a few years now there has been a slight overproduction of rosé wine in the world and that sales of Provence rosé wines have also decreased.
The 2025 harvest volume is in the same order of magnitude as 2024, i.e. 10% below the average for the five-year period and it is strongly affected by the heat wave in August, so there were no restrictions this year. It has been reported that the green Rolle grape in particular has been hit harder in terms of volume.
Sources: Vitisphere, CIVP, La Revue du Vin de France, atelierduvin.com
Published: 2025-11-06
Surely you have signed up for the Newsletter so that you receive news from the Provence wine world as well as other interesting wine news? If you have already done so, tell your wine-interested friends!
Provence expert Göran Boman, Author of the books “Provence – Vita, röda och även roséviner” and “The Wines of Provence – Tricolour “.
