Castelnau, Rebranding After Centenary, Assesses Frost Damage for 2017

Champagne Castelnau, which celebrated its centenary last year and is currently going through a rebranding, is like other producers in the region assessing damage from recent frosts in the area and is confident it can take any lost output from the 2017 crop in its stride. "We have more than 40,000 hectoliters of reserve wine'' and "28 million bottles aging peacefully in our cellars,'' Managing Director Pascal Prudhomme said during a presentation of the brand in London. He said the average loss of vineyard output across Champagne this year could be about 20 percent as a result of the freeze during the past month, with Castelnau potentially facing similar losses of production. That doesn't affect the company's longer-term strategy, which is based on multi-year production cycles and extensive use of reserve wine in the blending. "We have a huge stock of reserve wine,'' he said, a reflection of the multi-year cycle of the Champagne business. Castelnau sources its grapes from 760 growers with a combined 900 hectares of vines, and has 2.8 kilometers of cellars in which it stores its wines. "The style of our wine is based on two pillars,'' Prudhomme said. "Long aging on lees and a high percentage of chardonnay and reserve wines'' in the blend.